


The Power of Love!

by DragonManMax



Category: RWBY
Genre: Action/Adventure, F/M, Romance, Shameless Smut, Superheroes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-02
Updated: 2020-08-25
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:34:44
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 42,629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23955433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonManMax/pseuds/DragonManMax
Summary: Jaune hadn't been expecting to gain superpowers when he woke up from the coma, but he was hardly complaining. He was faster, stronger, had more stamina, and overall had never been healthier after his time in the hospital.Returning to a family that loved him perhaps a bit too much, a new girlfriend, loads of friends and lonely mothers in the community, Jaune's going to find that the only way he can save the world is by learning to love.Soon, he'll find himself in the midst of sex, power, and good times.
Comments: 24
Kudos: 112





	1. Origins

**‘I do not own RWBY. It was created by Monty Oum, and is owned by Roosterteeth.’**

**~The font ‘Cambria’ is recommended, for your viewing pleasure.~**

**Note:** This story is being created for a variety of reasons. One is that it is a sign of life from me. While (at the time of writing this author’s note) I have not updated a story in 375 days, I have been doing writing in this time, and more importantly, have been growing as a person.

The second reason is that I always thought this would be a neat setting, in a neat genre. The third reason is that I need a new excuse for writing smut that I could use to more organically get all the characters into one connected universe that I actually have a plot idea for. 

Here we go. (Full character profiles for his sisters & mother at the end.)

* * *

**The Power of Love!**

**Chapter I**

* * *

_Bzzt! Bzzt! Bzzt!_

Rolling in bed, a lanky man’s long arm reached out from the covers and slapped onto the nightstand. Pounding around several times, it messily found the different feeling texture and raised surface that he knew was the back of his phone. 

_Bzzt! Bzzt! Bzzt!_

Vibrations running up his hand, the phone left a sensory impression that was unique, and would have been memorable had he not then decided to throw it across the room with a grunt. Landing in a pile of laundry, it continued it’s incessant vibrating, penetrating even the pillow shield before he rolled onto the cool surface of the floor.

“Uuuuuuuuugh why can’t I have five more minutes?!”

And so, in a way that at this point was so utterly predictable it could’ve had a handbook written about it, Jaune went about his daily routine. He proceeded to roll off the floor, retrieve his phone, toss his blankets back onto his bed, grab his robe, and make the daily rush to the bathroom. 

Dodging two zombie-walking-slow sisters on the way, he stuck his tongue out in triumph slipping in the door and locking it behind him. Pounding ensued, fists large and small acting like a miniature earthquake before the now fully awakened hoard of blondes scrambling for the other bathrooms. 

Slipping into the shower under the hot water he eased back into the world without dreams, soaping his loofa before cleaning the places on his body the sun didn’t shine upon. Mind idly thinking about the day ahead, Jaune had a bright smile on his face, even as shampoo ran down said face and into his eyes.

The last day of the school year. 

Every school had one, and today was his. A crazy year had finally come to an end. He’d lost his job, battled bullies, experienced minor troubles within his group of friends, barely passed exams, broke an arm, got rejected by his dream girl, got a new job, won a radio contest, got stuck under quarantine, and managed to get together enough extra-credit to fix his grades.

It was a crazy year of ups and downs, but it was finally over. The hard work was over, the crazy-but-somehow-still-day-in-day-out monotony of his life would be broken for just a few months to relax and recharge for the next one’s shit, and absolutely _no one_ could be upset on a day that good.

Outta the shower and drying off, he popped on some deodorant, carefully combed and parted his hair, before tossing on his robe and making his way back to his room. Checking his phone, he swiped open the group chat to check for messages before tossing it unceremoniously onto the bed.

Pulling on some jeans, socks, comfy shoes, shirt and hoodie, he admired himself for a moment in the mirror. His hair was back to its usual scraggliness from the pulling on of his shirt, and he was looking the same way he usually did. 

This morning, he was feeling _good_ . No, scratch that, _great_. Fantastic, lovely, amazing, free.

He couldn’t help himself from having a smile break out on his face as he walked back down the hallway and down the steps into the well-lit living room. Spotting his family scrambling around for the final day, shouting about shoes and bags, he made his way to the kitchen where a select few sisters were eating breakfast.

“‘Mornin Clair, Violet, Lacy!” 

“Yo.”

Clair. At nineteen years old, she was the middle daughter of the household, having three sisters both older and younger than herself. Carving out an identity was difficult for her, but she had forged one nonetheless! Though it had never been quite clear what major she was currently going to university for.

“How’s it going?”

Violet. Seventeen years old and one half of a set of twins, her identity crisis came more in the form of differentiating herself from her twin and had resulted in beautiful purple streaks mixed into her Arc-blonde hair. Always polite and kind but somewhat restrained, she was a steady, positive presence.

“Mbghatgheaaeiegghhh!”

“What was that last one there Lacy? Because it sounds to me like you have a mouthful of food in your mouth while you’re talking.” He gave his youngest sister a menacing pat on the head as she blushed in embarrassment and swallowed her cereal.

Lacy. Jaune’s youngest sister was sixteen and had just obtained that newfound shot of confidence obtained with a driver’s learning licence. Part of the school debate team she was witty and charming, leaving rooms better, or significantly worse than she left them. She was unwilling to pull her punches and would mangle the hell out of anyone that mentioned her height, or tits. (Or lack thereof.)

“It doesn’t matter anymore,” Lacy said, pouting, her assumedly somewhat witty comment at his arrival having now been lost to time forever. “Excited for the last day of school!? I know _I_ am! This year has _suuuuuuuucked!_ ”

“Definitely am _not_ going to miss school while it’s out. Jeez, is it just me or has this year just been _the worst_ for everyone? I mean, I can’t be the only one who’s had a bad time!” Jaune said, exasperated as seemingly no one’s year was quite as bad as his. 

“Okay, well, regardless, it’s over!” Snatching his toast as it popped out of the toaster, he spun around his stool-sat sisters. “It’s over, and I’m out the door! See you guys later!~”

Hustling to the garage, he grabbed his bike off the wall, not bothering with a helmet before exiting out the side door and walking down the driveway. Hopping on, he began his daily journey to school, pedals beneath his feet and wind in his hair! 

Tires spinning beneath him, he tilted to avoid a driver who honked at his presence, rolling through the beautiful small-ish town that was his home. 

Vale was a small-ish place, but it had everything you could need. Schools, supermarkets, arcades, just enough industry and growth to employ people, small shops and a newly built urban-planning project that would serve as a hang-out spot for people from all over town. Just an hour and a half from the beach, it had fields, forests, hills, everything one would need for modern-day outdoor activities.

It was beautiful. 

Jaune loved living in Vale, and sometimes it felt like Vale loved having him in it. A neighbour behind a literal white picket fence waved at him with a smile, and he waved back. An ice cream truck came out of a side road, turning on the musical siren for the primary school kids already outta school. 

Fifteen minutes later he was at school and off his bike, locking it down before heading to the front courtyard where he already saw a very distinct group of friends. Colourful and bright, they were Beacon Secondary’s soon to be seniors, finishing as of that day the second to last year needed to graduate and finally move into more interesting areas of study - whether it be academic or otherwise.

Blake, Yang, Ruby, Pyrrha, Ren and Nora were already there and waved him over with smiles. 

Blake did not smile, instead choosing to have a small upturn of the lips, while Ruby beamed and bounced, lunging forward to tug him to the group where he met an equally radiant Pyrrha. Nora continued her story, describing another dream with excitement while Ren’s face absorbed the heat of the sun with a small smile. Yang punched him in the shoulder, and he smiled, happy to have found a group that accepted him all those years ago.

A gust of wind blew through the trees, and the conversations came to a natural lull as the bell rang. Heading to class, they spent the next few hours with lame, but slightly cool class parties with lame movies, before being dismissed into the sunny open air of summer following a quick forward from the principal and vice-principal.

School was now considered officially closed for Summer vacation.

“You guys hear about that meteor shower tonight?” Ruby asked as they reconvened on the walk to the bike shed. Everyone rode in the town, as they were broke students, cars were expensive, and they didn’t live that far anyways. “It’s supposed to be the first time in _eight years_ since we’ve had an event like this!”

“Definitely not something you see every day.” Weiss chimed in. “Though I have seen an eclipse before.”

“Ahem.” Coughing for attention, Ruby continued. “Anyways, _because_ it doesn’t happen all that often, _and_ it’s the last day of school, _and_ we don’t have any plans for tonight, we were going to have a barbeque at my house tonight!” 

“I’m going to assume you’re telling us this because we’re invited, and not because you just want to brag, right?” Yang said, trapping the smaller struggling girls’ head under her arm and giving her a rub. “Because doing something that nefarious would be _totally_ not cool.” 

“ _Obviously_ you guys are invited! You guys are my best friends, and my mother simply wouldn’t stand for it if you guys didn’t come over!” Ruby said with happiness before quickly mumbling something else with a blush.

“Sorry, I missed that last part. Anyone catch that?” Blake said, breaking her usual silence before looking around. Nobody else had caught onto her mumbling, so Ruby repeated herself and Jaune raised an eyebrow.

“Sorry, what?”  
  
“You guys also kinda need to come with food because we don’t have enough for so many people!” Cutely doing the puppy dog eyes she knew none could resist she watched everyone bowl over like so many pins at her efforts. “Great, so Jaune you bring a bunch because, you know, you’ve got eight plus ones.”

“Ren and Nora, bring whatever’s lovable by large quantities of people, Blake, a veggie tray or something, sushi? Was that racist? Nah. Yang, you can bring whatever you deem appropriate - _not_ beer again, mum is still mad from last time. Pyrrha, consider some, I-don’t-know, _cereal_ , ah, I’m just kidding, chips & dips are cool.”

Weiss looked intently at the younger girl. “And me? What exactly am _I_ meant to bring! Because if you’re trying to imply that I am not competent enough to bri-”

“Ice. Yup, Weiss on ice duty. Bring ice and cups! Sorry, I know how being left out is a touchy subject for you.” The short one said, her reddish-black hair bouncing with a giggle. “Everyone understands what they’re bringing? Good!”

Laughing together, the group hopped onto their bikes and rode out together, hitting the pavement with a little bit of well deserved reckless abandon. They were finally going to have a full summer of fun, and hopefully leave the drama behind!

Peeling off at their respective turns to get home, the group promised to meet later at the Rose-Xiao-Long abode and drifted off until there were only two, and then one. Riding home, Jaune could feel the wind in his hair.

There was a new feeling in the air. Like something was going to change. The sun was warm on his back and the wind cool on his skin. His sisters were happy, his friends were happy, he was happy, everything was working out. 

The upcoming year would be different.

It would be a good year, and it would all start with a banger party.

* * *

**~oOo~ The Power of Love! ~oOo~**

* * *

Life was in full swing, music blaring from the speakers brought outside. The sun was on the verge of beginning to set, and it was around eight o’clock’. The sky was becoming a beautiful hue of orange, light purple and blue, as the daylight faded away.

There were some small party games going on and chatting amongst parents about the best way to cook meat, as well as who in the neighbourhood outside of their group was sleeping with who else.

Ruby’s backyard was a wide grassy space, with plenty of room, a mid-sized pool that had seen some earlier use, a patio with chairs and benches that thankfully had cushions. Earlier festivities had somewhat declined, and already people were moving around to relax and chill with their friends around the outdoor firepit.

There were blondes everywhere, most of Jaune’s family had come with him, now interspersed with their friends. Kali had come with her daughter, Blake, but the woman’s husband hadn’t appeared as he was deployed at the time. Yang’s mother had even decided to show up, which wasn’t often for social functions such as this but from what everyone could tell she was trying to get more involved and was having a good time.

Weiss’ younger brother had been there but had gone home early citing stomach issues, and was taken home by their mother, who it seems had finally gotten her alcoholism under control after the divorce and subsequent self-bettering spree.

And so it would be here that we found our hero, Jaune Arc sitting on a couch. 

“Man, I’m so tired,” Ruby said slumping into the seat next to him as Yang flopped into the couch opposite him and Nora, Ren and Pyrrha showed up occupying some space nearby. “At the same time as I’m tired, it’s only eight! We’ve gotta do more than this!”

“How about the park!?” Nora asked, shooting upwards with newfound energy (which never quite seemed to drain away). “They’ve got swings and monkey bars, and it’s only like two blocks away!” 

“Well, nobody’s arguing, so let’s go!” Yang said, rolling off the couch. Jaune noticed her lack of a shirt, wearing only a bikini top. Her tits were briefly distracting, but he made sure to control himself and stop himself from admiring her tone body too much.

Leaving whoever hadn’t been informed behind, they walked the small while to the park. When the swings came into sight, there was the natural race to see who would be the first to get there. Eating a fist to the face from Nora, Jaune stumbled and pulled Pyrrha onto the grass with him as he got back to his feet. Outpacing Ruby’s quick, but small strides, he ran but didn’t get there before either the cutthroat Nora or the cheating Ren. 

“Haha!~ Suck it, Jauney boy! Now go play on the slide or something.” The only orange-haired one in the group said as she swung herself higher with a hilarious laugh. 

Giving a needlessly exasperated sigh, he climbed up the structure definitely not built for so many heavy people. It wobbled but did not fall, standing tall. Spotting Pyrrha on top of the monkey-bars, he made his way up before plonking himself down behind his long-time best friend.

“The name’s Jaune Arc. Short, sweet, and the ladies love it.” He must admit his heart did a small flutter as she laughed. It was a beautiful, full thing, ringing around and joining the now darkened playground. 

Misguided by his mother, years ago, that was the first thing he had ever said to her.

“Jaune, do you think you’re ever going to give up that line?” She said, giving him a radiant smile. The red-haired athlete had always put up with his antics, and even now he knew she wasn’t really being serious.

“Not if it continues getting such lovely laughs as those.” He responded noting her blush - being complimented was always something that did that to her. “How are you doing, Pyrrha? Been a while since you and I have just gotten together and just _talked_ , you know?”

She fidgeted with her sleeve. “I _absolutely_ understand! I feel like we’re not alone as often as before, but that’s a good thing, isn’t it? Best-friendships are all good and well, but I think we’re both happy with Ruby, Blake, Weiss and Yang around, aren’t we?”

“That we are.” He said, looking behind him to said friends that were there. Yang, still without a proper top, was pushing Ruby _up_ a fireman’s pole. “Doesn’t mean we still can’t feel free to be alone and talk without them though.”

Pyrrha hummed in agreement, a smile once more finding its way to her beautiful features. 

Perhaps it was the day having gone so perfect, so well, that he finally took notice of Pyrrha’s true beauty. As though she was carved by a master mason, her facial features were clear, well defined, and free from blemishes. Skin he knew was soft, oh so soft, and yet, her cheekbones were sharp. 

Her eyes, usually a sparkling bright green were a darker, deeper, and more intimate shade than usual in the day’s already dead light - they carried within them the same mirth she so often provided everyone with. Her hair was long, and a bright, unapologetic red that screamed: _“look at me, I demand your attention and you will not regret giving it to me!”_

It was at that moment that Jaune realized he liked his best friend Pyrrha Nikos.

Jaune wasn’t entirely sure how he’d missed it before. He loved spending time with her - just being in the same room typically brought a small smile to his face. Their senses of humour were similar, and he loved her laugh, every part of her voice and thoughts and mind and soul. He loved her body and how she treated others, the effort she put in to be the best without caring what others thought, the loyalty she paid him knowing it would be repaid.

That deep trust, that bond, that was something that couldn’t have been broken by a single fucked up moment. That was something that even if he failed here, couldn’t be destroyed. He knew now, that he would confess, tonight, and there would be no better way to do it.

He didn’t see the importance of waiting, the thoughts of doubt, the possibility of failure because everything was unknown, and on that day, at that park, he was in the moment. He wasn’t in the future or trapped in his mind.

_He was in the moment._

… And yet, he couldn’t quite bring himself to say anything with the rest of their friends around. Not because of shame, but because of what an intimate moment it was - he would lay himself bare, emotionally raw, and undisguised. 

People don’t show that to just anyone, oftentimes regardless of how close a friend they are.

So instead he sat there on the monkey bars two feet away from his best friend, watching the wind blow through the trees surrounding the field the park was within. They enjoyed a comfortable silence, which turned back into small talk, then active chatting, then conversations, and jokes.

During that day alone, they had reconnected so deeply - the year had been such a wild ride to move them apart the first time, but now they were strong again, and as the time ticked on and the others grew tired and bored, and the day grew old and dark, they continued talking.

_Bzzt! Bzzt! Bzzt!_

Turning at the sound of vibration with an accompanied ringtone of some female singer that sounded vaguely familiar, Jaune watched Yang take out her phone, the screen illuminating her skin and face in the now night time.

Answering, eventually all the other members there climbed off their respective play-thing and crowded around her, assuming that she was getting a call to go home. He noted that this could be his chance if he only wanted to take it.

“Mum is telling me that the radio says the shower will start soon, so we should probably start heading back.” The boisterous blonde said. Everyone agreed with her, understanding the reasoning behind that, but Jaune looked around, then upwards, clearly making a show of it.

There was a clear, unobstructed view of the sky for yards and yards around, little to no light pollution. The park itself would be the perfect spot to watch the meteor shower.

“I don’t know, Yang. I might just stay here and watch it.” Jaune continued, looking around at the group. Hopefully at least one of them would be bright enough. “Anyone to care to stay behind? Pyrrha?” 

“I agree. Here would be a lovely place to watch.”

Nora made to say something before a hand quickly clamped onto her shoulder with an ominous, titanium strength grip. (And I know something about a titanium strength grip, believe me!) Ren stood next to her, emotionless as ever and Yang gave a thumbs up which turned into her pointing over her left shoulder with the same thumbs.

“Sounds cool, but I think we’re going to head back, right guys?”

Getting nods of agreement all around, four members began walking off and Pyrrha got a bit closer as they left. “I think I spotted a bench just a little over there. Sitting on the monkey bars and staring straight up would probably be dangerous after a while.”

Making their way towards said bench, the two of them enjoyed the quiet of the night, taking in the grass between their flip flops, the wind, kicking up once more, in their hair. While before they were alone in the sense of isolation within a group, now they were truly alone with one another.

Coming to their previously mentioned seat, the two of them began looking upwards, the cool surface of the wood beneath them. 

“You know, in Mistral, you would never be able to see the stars as they are now.” Pyrrha said, pulling her hair over one shoulder. “The light pollution is so bad that in the city, or even the suburbs you can only see the very brightest stars.”

“It’s kind of sad, really. Because looking at this now, I am seeing what hundreds of thousands of people are missing out on… And we can see this any night we want. Maybe we don’t consider how lucky we are sometimes.” She continued, looking upwards.

He hummed in agreement.

Above them was a spectacular series of stars and what must’ve been distant galaxies and nebulas. Explosions that occurred millions of years ago were only now having their light meet the Earth, in a sense a form of time travel. They were watching history happen, millions of years after it happened in many hues of purple, blue, the occasional yellow, and white, all stationary, yet moving faster than they could believe in the grand scheme of things.

Jaune briefly felt it. The nothingness that you got sometimes when you realized that you truly were insignificant. He was tiny, nothing but a cosmic spark in the infinite darkness. His actions would never compare with a majesty such as that, and in the end, if they couldn’t, he had only one reason to try… He had to try to make himself happy because if he can’t be remembered, like so many stars, and would eventually be lost within time, he would have to make the most of the time he had right then.

“Pyr-” 

“Jau-”

The two gave a soft laugh and looked away from one another, where they had been previously looking up. Funny, how two could be such friends, and yet at times it could be difficult just to look the other person in the face.

“Pyrrha, I have something I want to say to you.” He said, looking at her, finding the courage to make full eye contact. Her green eyes sparkled, reflecting, just a bit, the night sky. He saw her lips, delicate, perfectly formed. Her nose, perhaps slightly too sharp, but he loved it all the same. “Provided you’ll let me, of course.”

“Be my guest…”

His throat closed, for a moment, and he felt his heart beating in his ears, heard the steady drum of the muscle keeping him alive. “Pyrrha… I don’t really know how I’m meant to say this, and I’m not sure if it’ll be quite what you deserve, but I think I have to say it today, or else I’ll regret it.”

The girls’ mouth opened and closed for a moment, though it seemed she drew no breath. 

“We’ve known one another for a long time, at this point… We’ve done basically everything: crazy adventures, quiet afternoons, arguments, agreements, deep conversations and unimportant small talk. We’ve done the movie theatres, the restaurants, our parents have met, we’ve slept in the same room, we’ve done so much together.”

“You and I have done so much together, it’s almost like the list never ends… And I think - no I _know_ , that I think I’ve realized something; and perhaps I’m kinda stupid, or dense, or maybe just a little oblivious, or perhaps I’m as big a twit as some people make me out to be, but Pyrrha - ” 

Moments in time flashed before his eyes. He’s seen her in every state: mad, angry, annoyed, but also euphorically happy, pleased, content, sad, competitive, worn down. He’s seen her in every situation: clothed, accidentally naked, winning, losing (albeit rarely), close to others, and trying to break in. He’s seen the best and the worst sides of her, and they were two sides to the same coin that made up Pyrrha Nikos.

“- I think that the _only_ person I would really _want_ to do that sort of stuff with for the foreseeable future _is you_. I want to be there on the bad hair days, the day your metaphorical dog dies, but also the day you graduate, and the day you accomplish your goals, and make your dreams come true.”

Every second rushed through his mind, and he forgot about his beating heart, flicking by. The shared laughs, the awkward silences, the moments in between - every second they were together made itself known, going faster and faster until he was here. 

So, he looked upwards into the face of the girl he lik- no, _loved_ , and saw her tears, and at that moment, he too realized maybe he didn’t know her just as well as he thought he did.

“And I can see I’ve made you upset, so if you’ll just let me finish, I feel like it’s important I say this now-” She weakly shook her head, but he continued on, scooching closer to her on the bench and taking one strong, yet unbelievably soft hand in both of his. Her eyes glistened, the same as her cheeks. “But I love you, Pyrrha Nikos.”

“Now, I’m sorry th-” 

He was promptly shut up by her closing the gap and kissing him. Between them, he could feel her smile, her soft hot lips, and her hands run up his chest and shoulders before settling around his neck. His hands, now free, settled around her waist, making their way up her back, rubbing the soft shirt and skin beneath.

To call it magical was a disparage to the kiss itself.

It was more than magical, it was amazing, stupendous, all those words he could barely remember at that moment. It was all that and more, really there was only one word that could describe it, and it was a possible impossibility: _perfect_. And so like a moment stretched on forever under the stars, they kissed.

Soon, they broke apart, breath needing to be had but they kissed again. And again. And again. Each and every time was as good as the last, if not better. Her legs had swung so they laid across his lap, and they had closed the distance between them, becoming less two people and more one single pile of limbs on a bench. 

After a few more it became more than innocent. From lip on lip to tongues entwining in hot passion, the two of them pulled the other closer, finding the clothes they wore to be the only thing keeping one another apart. He felt her breasts against his chest, the soft pillows of flesh containing two hardened nipples rubbing against him.

One hand found its way into her luscious soft hair and he took in her scent, her feel, her heat, her taste, her _everything_. The other ran up her long, smooth legs, and he admired the toned muscle beneath the feminine form.

Jaune had already decided the day to be one of the best of his life, and this had certainly topped it as _the_ greatest. Their tongues continued duelling, instinct driving them more than skill, and saliva mixed. 

His phone fell out of his pocket and onto the grass but he didn’t care - he was only focussed on her. Neither could believe how good it felt, and Jaune wondered why he had taken so long to realize he loved this woman. 

Finally pulling apart from the ecstasy giving, life-changing kiss the two of them had just shared, a thin trail of saliva between them, Jaune looked at her face. She wasn’t crying anymore, face instead flushed, a bright red matching her hair - hair which was slightly in disarray from where his fingers still hung, now moved around the side, thumbs resting on the front of her face. 

Only imagining he looked much the same, Jaune tried to catch his breath and smiled as he did so, before giving a little, joy-filled laugh. He watched her smile and felt the urge to kiss her again, but just continued holding her close.

“Mmm.” Humming in contentedness, she pulled his hands from her face and instead around her shoulders, placing herself essentially sitting under his arm and in his lap at once. “I don’t need to say what I was going to say, anymore.”

“Hmm? I’m still interested in hearing it.”

The girl so used to winning blushed, new red somehow being distinct against her still burning face. “I-I was going to tell you that _I_ loved you, tonight, too… But it looks like you won this round, Jaune.”

“I wouldn’t quite describe us professing our love for one another as a game of winning or losing…” He said, looking at her sparkling green eyes. “But if it means that much to you, I’m willing to accept a tie.”

She laughed again. He couldn’t quite get enough of it. The two sat there. 

“You know, after tonight this is going to sound kind of silly, but I’ve actually liked you for a long time,” Pyrrha said, stroking the back of his hand. “I guess I was just so afraid that you wouldn’t feel the same - and after all the times I tried and you misunderstood, or the times I basically _asked you out_ and you just didn’t get it.”

Pyrrha sighed, and his still racing mind began going through memories, fast as his heartbeat.

“Everyone thought you were even trolling me sometimes, but we eventually decided you weren’t that mean, and that you really were just that dense.” She said, giving a little sigh, but doing so with a smile. “But, I love you nonetheless, Jaune. Just as I’m sure you accept me for me, I’ll accept you too - even if it means accepting you being as dense as a neutron star.”

“W-wait. So you’re telling me that two years ago when we went out to karaoke just the two of us, we were on a date? And that time you said you loved me in truth or dare you weren’t doing it just to avoid having to give a real answer? And that time you left the door open while you showered and I fixed your computer was a way to seduce me? How about that time you gave me those chocolates for Valentine's Day?”

A soft hand patted his chest. “All of that and so much more you just _didn’t notice_.”

Long peals of laughter escaped him now. Here he was, not realizing after all this time that he loved her, while at the same time having missed all that time just how desperately she loved him. He truly was dense as a neutron star… 

Looking upwards, Jaune followed her gaze to the still clear heavens. Now the event was starting, streaks occurring randomly in their line of sight, bright white and beautiful, burning with heat as the passion between them had just minutes before. 

They were everywhere and soon began coming in different colours. From all directions there was bright, bright light blues shining, and yellows as quick as a flicker of light in the darkness. Beautiful streaks, time and time again they came, each seemingly more intriguing than the last, and he held Pyrrha’s hand, wondering if they were alone in the universe.

Wondering if they were the only form of life that could appreciate an event such as this - such a spectacular meteor shower was rare, usually, they were simple, infrequent. But this was something more, there was always one in the sky, if not two, or five, or ten at once. He almost didn’t know where to look, instead taking up the moments to admire the cosmic symphony, singing in a language he didn’t understand, showing him images that he wouldn’t remember by the end.

So, there they sat, together, watching it until she shivered in his arms.

“If you’re cold we can head back. I’m sure it’ll still be going on… Then we can sit by the fire-pit with everyone, and relax in warmth if you’d prefer.” He chuckled to himself. “To be honest, I wanted us alone just so I could confess to you, but now that I suppose we’ve decided we’re a couple there’s nothing wrong with returning to the others.”

“Mmmh… Let’s just sit here for a few minutes longer.”

Pyrrha wanted it that way, and so it was, the two of them remaining unseparated for the next five minutes until she tapped his arm and he retracted it. She got up, dusting herself a bit. Jaune’s eyes wandered, looking at her now not as his friend, but as his girlfriend.

He could understand why she’d been cold earlier. His girlfriend wore a navy blue t-shirt with a v-neck neckline, exposing some cleavage that he just began to see in a different light. While before he wasn’t a _perfect_ guy and looked away, growing up with seven sisters had somewhat desensitized him to the magic that was _breasts_.

Yet, he looked nonetheless, now feeling within himself a hunger for her body, becoming intimate with her. They were perfectly round, and he could remember the soft feeling from earlier. They were large and were barely contained by the neckline - perfect white skin showing. 

Blue eyes trailed down her body to the bottom, down her long exposed legs, strong and fit as she was an athlete. Then his eyes wandered up once more and settled on her behind, the perfect ass contained in some jean shorts. Not the kind that was too high and too tight that no mother would let her daughter out in them, but pleasant enough that she looked absolutely stunning under the starlight. 

“Admiring the view?”

Jaune raised his hands in surrender. “You caught me - take me away o’girlfriend mine.”

Turning she offered him her hand and pulled him up off the bench, entwining her long slender fingers in his as they began the walk back. She entwined herself around his left arm, and once more he felt her tits against him. They were walking for a minute under the still falling meteorites, burning in orbit as Jaune smacked his other palm into his face.

“My phone fell out earlier, actually. You can keep going, I’ll catch up!” He said, detaching and giving her a kiss once more that made him melt, before hustling back to the bench to retrieve his phone.

Running as opposed to walking, he was much quicker, and bent down, reaching through the bench to grab his phone. Turning it over in his hands he considered trying to record the meteor shower for a moment before realizing there was no way his phone camera would have a great enough amount of exposure to do it justice.

So, accepting what was, he began his jog back to his girlfriend, when he felt something different.

Wind which had before been going through the trees surrounding the clearing had picked up, which in itself was not unusual… But it came with an intensity, a gale-force as opposed to a summer’s breeze - a wind more like that of a hurricane, than a desk-top fan. 

So too did the grass change - where before it was soft around his feet, dark around his flip flop, it was now… Almost covered in light? A dark yellow, like that of a fluorescent street lamp, seemed to be shining on it, and he heard a _whoosh_ of more displaced air.

Turning, he felt a scorching heat on his back, then his front. Jaune did not realize what was happening until it was too late. He looked up and saw that there was a meteorite coming right for him before the world went dark.

* * *

**~oOo~ The Power of Love! ~oOo~**

* * *

_Beep! … Beep! … Beep! … Beep! … Beep! … Beep! … Beep!_

It was the only thing he noticed anymore. The Beeping (as he would later call it) would occupy his every waking moment, every thought, every sense, beeping. All of it, occurring in a steady interval which seemed oddly familiar - just after every one Mississippi there it would be, again and again.

Consuming his thoughts, his heart, his everything for those first few moments of being awake again, those beeps were - quite literally - his lifeline. Or, to be more accurate, it was a heart rate monitor, spiking each and every time his heart pumped more blood and oxygen through his body. 

His throat was scratchy, soar, and dry, so unforgivably dry. His tongue felt too big, and Jaune could suddenly locate each and every one of his teeth simply by thinking about it. His eyes felt crusty and just as dry as his tongue. The hair on his head was suddenly too heavy, and the sheets on top of him suddenly too rough.

So, he opened his eyes.

What Jaune was met with was essentially what was expected. A hospital room which was thankfully private, complete with not curtains, but four full walls. There was a wooden door to his left, past some machinery like the infamous heart rate monitor and IV-drip. In front of him, a hospital door, complete with a small window and all. The wall to his right was undecorated save for an empty pair of hospital seats. A nightstand was to his right, against the wall behind him, on it a glass of water sitting on a coaster, and what looked to be a vast series of cards. 

Also sitting there was a single vase, which appeared handmade, imperfect as it was, containing seemingly randomly selected flowers from the route whoever had brought the vase had taken to the hospital.

Looking down, he spotted the IV in his arm and looked away with a wince.

To say he was afraid of needles wasn’t quite accurate, but the thought that this had been inside of him for who knows how long did have a way of making him feel viscerally uncomfortable. 

Giving a deep sigh, he watched the curtains on the window to his right blow with the wind, as though occupied by ghosts. He saw the sunlight glancing off of the white lace, a beautiful moment for what was clearly not his greatest.

He had to admit, it was somewhat disappointing that there had been nobody else in the room, ready to leap to his side the moment he woke. That was always what was seen in films and shows - always someone who cared enough to sleep at the hospital, to make their very lives revolve around him waking up.

But that would be selfish. No time should be wasted just to watch him sleep.

Mind beginning to turn, Jaune was becoming more alert every second, and he had come to several key conclusions: if he was awake and didn’t remember getting here, and there was time for many cards to be put on his bedside table, he was there longer than one night. 

So too, he inspected his person, and it seemed as though he wore no casts. He was stiff, but not broken. Tired, but not dead. This led him to believe that it had been time enough for any wounds from impact to have mostly healed, or at least enough that there was no point in wearing a cast.

Lastly, was the heart monitor.

There was no reason to give a heart monitor to someone with a broken leg or other limb. There was no reason to give a heart monitor to someone with a concussion, who was simply sleeping overnight at the hospital. No, for there to be a heart monitor involved at all, that must have meant that currently, or at some point in the past, his condition had been quite dire. 

Breathing in once, deep, then again, deep, Jaune noticed his heart monitor’s pace change, ever so slightly as he did so. Looking down to his left hand, he saw where they had attached the monitors, and pulled them off. 

Weak at first, then stronger, it took him a few tries, but by the end of it, he felt enough strength and control over his arms again to brave removing the IV. Swinging up into a sitting position, he noticed truly just how sore and stiff he was. His back hurt, his legs hurt, his arms hurt. 

Giving the floor a few cursory taps, he turned onto his stomach, lowering himself off of the bed until his feet were both firmly planted. Standing, he felt wobbly, but not unable to. His strength hadn’t totally left. 

Heading towards the door to the left of his bed, he stumbled in, shutting the wooden door behind him. Spotting a toilet, he sat down with a deep and heavy sigh, before doing his business. Thankfully he was wearing a hospital gown, with no back.

Finding himself eventually standing at the sink, he looked into the mirror.

Clearly, someone had been taking care of him. He was shaved, not too recently or fantastically well, and it was slightly uneven on the sides. Noticing that, he looked at his nails: those too were maintained, cut short some time ago. But, the hair on his head was long, blonde bangs falling over his face, and down his neck.

Jaune saw little scaring, or any signs of injury on the surface at all. 

Drinking from the tap to hand, he gulped down the cool liquid, taking enough so that he felt like he would burst briefly before resurfacing. He washed his face, cooling his neck. He stretched, twisting his back, working his arms, legs, slowly working more heat into the muscles.

Spazzing out for a second, he limped closer with a cramp for a moment before hearing a banging on the door outside. Instinct took over - he knew not why he did it but every sense told him he was in danger. Taking cover behind the sink and opening a small drawer, he pulled out the floss, unravelling it in his hands like a garrote.

There was some shouting, then a wail, and what sounded like people crying from behind the door. It took him a moment, but he would remember that weeping anywhere. Instead of fear, it was affection and care that took hold of his heart, and he opened the door and returned back to his hospital room.

Crowded in the center of the room in what looked a bit like a massive blob of humanity, was eight blonde women, holding on to each other for strength and support, some wailing, others seemingly looking straight into nothingness in front of their very eyes. They hugged and cried, and there was some cursing coming from somewhere in there.

Following suit, he joined in the hug, wrapping his long lanky arms around what sisters he could manage coming in from the side for a hug like that. There was some poking, but they continued hugging, accepting his embrace in the group hug as one of his sisters, Amethyst (who would later identify herself to be) curled into his chest, grasping at the hospital down as he placed his chin on her head.

“Shh, it’s okay, it’s okay… You’ll be okay. Now, what’s wrong?” He goaded, hoping for any reason as to why his family would be so upset. 

“I-I-It’s Jau-” She burst into wailing tears again, face scrunching up in pain. It was undignified, a bit, sure, but by the way, her mascara was running without care she was clearly too hurt to give a shit. “He-He’s dead! They t-told us he flatlined twenty minutes ago!”

Wailing once more, she clutched at him and he just pulled his family closer towards him. Still, they struggled but generally seemed to be migrating in his direction. “A-and now they’ve moved his dead body! W-while he was still w-warm!”

“You’ll be okay…” He kissed the top of her head, letting her occupy all the space beneath his chin. She fit perfectly, five-foot-eight inches tall, to his six foot one. “Now who’s dead? Because if they aren’t I’ll beat them to death for distressing you like this.”

“ _Jaune_ ! He’s dead! _Dead!_ Deeeea- Wai-” His sister looked up at him, eyes still pooled with tears, snot coming out of her nose, makeup ruined and hair in a mess. Even as she hicked and wept, something dawned on her.

“You son of a bitch!”

He found that suddenly he was looking at a different part of the room than he had previously been. Pain erupted in his neck, and spots danced before his vision. Suddenly his vision truly was changing, giving him all sorts of new perspectives to be seen, like the underside of his hospital be-

* * *

**~oOo~ The Power of Love! ~oOo~**

* * *

**Note:** Now, I would just like to say, I already have Chapter 1 to Chapter 3 of this story complete, which is good. It will be released once a week for the next two weeks, just to give the story some starting consistency.

I need beta-readers for all of my stories - if you are interested in helping with any particular story of mine, or are cool with helping with _all_ of my stories, leave your interest in a review, or PM me, and we can get together on Discord and start a good partnership.

Also, there’s been a lot of changes to my life in the last year - I’m talking stuff that's kinda ‘mundanely-crazy’. That said, it’s been good, and I’m more healthy physically and mentally than ever before, which is _awesome_. A part of this good health means I have changed my daily habits - I now have a spreadsheet for writing every day, and my goal is 2000 words daily for a year.

That’s 730,000 words yearly. (And so far I am in fact meeting my targets for writing.)

While things have been crazy with COVID (I hope you’re all okay, by the way.), I’m taking this time to think more and more about writing, and how to become better. You all mean the world to me, so please let me know how I can improve. 

**-DragonManMax**


	2. Arrival

**‘I do not own RWBY. It was created by Monty Oum, and is owned by Roosterteeth.’**

**~The font ‘Cambria’ is recommended, for your viewing pleasure.~**

**Note:** Chapter 2 is now out - which is nice for a multitude of reasons. (Though, as of writing this Chapter 1 will only be coming _out_ in the next few hours.) I hope you’ve all been doing well and are enjoying it so far.

(2020-05-08: I must admit, this week has been terrible production-wise. The spreadsheet is not pleased.)

This story is exclusive to Archive of Our Own, just so I’m reminded to write more, and can engage with a new audience. (Also because it’s easier to distance myself from my smut on here.) I hope you’re all enjoying it, and continue enjoying it for its duration.

There are 43 Potential Romantic Partners in this story, and trust me… We’re going to get through them all in time.

* * *

**The Power of Love!**

**Chapter II**

* * *

“Explain to me again why you had to nearly break my nose?” 

As one could expect, the car ride until that point had been relatively quiet. The nasally asked question came from behind a large wad of tissues held to the face of a certain blonde teenager, who _clearly_ , was just _not_ having the best time of his life.

Due to the fact that his family was nine people large, there were very few commercially available vehicles that could fit everyone. More often than not, they were in three vehicles, with the occasional two vehicles. It made getting to the car interesting, if anything, considering the deeply ingrained hierarchy of seating depending on who was driving that particular day.

Of course, this same rush to the car led to interesting scenarios, like Jaune sitting between two sisters, with another sister and his mother in front of them. To his left, sat Lavender - the second twin to hers and Violet’s duo. 

She was similar to her sister in many ways (what with them being identical twins and whatnot), with one of the few differences being her glasses. Round and in a style that seemed to perfectly suit her, they occasionally glinted under sunlight streaming in the car windows. 

To his right sat the sister who so sorely hurt his face in her fit of what he would later dub ‘Sea Rage’, Amethyst. Older than himself by three years at 21, all signs pointed to her having come home from the university following his accident - it would’ve been a pleasant surprise had his face still not hurt so badly.

In front, was his oldest and tallest sister, Sage. Having partially dyed her hair orange, it was an incomplete orange-blonde that made the already fiery twenty two year old even more fearsome. That said, she was quite kind - she rarely held grudges, or acted without reason. Piss her off? She’ll rip off your testicles. Treat her kindly? She’s sweet as a button.

Lastly, was his mother. Ex-business woman and as close as you could get to being a professional mother as one could get, Juliette Arc had seemingly limitless patience for her family. While her mind was sharp, so too could be her words, which would hurt you in places you didn’t know you could be hurt provided you annoyed the fearsome forty-two-year-old.

“Because you made us think you were dead.” Amethyst said. Despite the fact that she was hugging one of his arms as though he might disappear, and clearly felt bad about it, she couldn’t help but find some way to spiral the blame off of herself. 

“Normal people don’t get out of bed for twenty minutes just after getting out of a coma.” Came a comment from the front, and his eyes squared from behind the tissues into those of Sage. “What? I’m not wrong.”

He had almost forgotten what normalcy was at this point.

Everyone had filled him in on what had happened, and there were still parts he didn’t quite know, but essentially, a meteorite that shouldn’t have been there, _was_ , and landed, not on him, but close enough that the resulting shockwave and heat gave him some pretty nasty burns, a head wound, and several broken bones.

And that’s without mentioning the coma!

Jaune had been out of it for two and a half months, in which time his body healed, and he’d (apparently) had two required surgeries, before they left him under monitoring to keep track of his potentially unstable condition.

They’d said it was miraculous just how fast and how well he’d recovered.

While usually he would’ve been given a few tests to do after getting out of it, circumstances previously pertaining to his remarkably fast healing meant that he had already had blood work and tests done. The only thing they couldn’t be sure of was his physical performance because he’d been removed from the hospital and returned to the custody of his mother immediately after finding himself face down on the floor.

“I’m not a normal person, apparently.” He said, removing the tissues now that his nosebleed had calmed down. Taking a look out the side windows, he noticed they were almost home. 

“But I’m not complaining. I’ve missed two and a half months of my summer break. This was meant to be my year to have a real banger spring break, and now it’s ruined. Not to mention all the TV and movies I’ve missed.”

“Out of a coma and the first thing he does is think about TV.” Jaune could’ve sworn his mother had uttered under her breath as she rolled into the driveway. “Could’ve thought about his family, or his friends, but _noooo_ .” 

Sass aside, he knew his mother was happy he was back.

Opening the car door, Amethyst tried getting out before realizing there was a problem with her buckle. Pleased to be back, Jaune climbed over her, legs and crotch passing her chest before he found a foothold and hopped out into the warm sun.

“Finally home. Damn, I don’t even know what I’ll do with my last two weeks of vacation.”

“You should start by telling your friends you’re okay. All of them were really worried about you.” His mother said, having found her way out of the car. “Especially Pyrrha, sure, but all of them really _did_ care.”

“Even Blake?” Jaune asked. While Blake was most certainly someone he would consider a friend, they had never been particularly close. 

“Even Blake.” She replied seriously. “Jaune, sometimes you think less of yourself, and I don’t know why. Your friends care about you - all of them, a lot. So you should let them know you love them, and appreciate them because if there’s anything to be taken away from this ordeal, it’s just how quickly it can slip away.”

“Mmm. You’re right Mom.”

So, he returned to his bedroom, noticing someone had cleaned. Grabbing a better pair of clothes than what the hospital had thankfully provided him with, he considered changing before heading off to the shower.

Texting Pyrrha, he let her know he was OK and that she should come over in the next half hour.

Letting the water run over him, he soaped his loofa, thinking. Thinking about how he would make it up to his friends for freaking them out that much - thinking if it was even worth it to make it up to them… While Jaune had to admit he felt bad for distressing them, he _was_ in a coma and lost two and a half months of his life.

He would say that he had been dealt his karmic justice.

Jaune’s mind kept drifting back to his friends, from all sorts of different angles. How much could’ve changed, how they would treat him upon his return, how he should treat _them_ upon his return. He was filled with doubts and corresponding reassurances about their sympathy to his condition, as okay as it may have seemed.

Friendships were important to him, but so was his girlfriend, and Jaune’s thoughts drifted over to her too. He was glad he told her he loved her that night because it was more clear than ever just how quickly someone could lose it all and never be able to say what they always knew they should.

Soon, his mind was thinking about more than his girlfriend, but about love.

There was something appealing about the concept of love - familial, romantic, platonic. There were so many kinds, and all of them meant something. He loved Ren like a brother, and he loved his sisters like they were family. He loved Pyrrha like his girlfriend and his friends like they were his truest, most helpful confidants.

Perhaps something _had_ changed during the coma, despite all of their tests on him while he was under.

While he had been assured that nothing had changed in his body, save for what was apparently a few scars he could now feel with his watery hands - one on his lower back, two on his torso, one large one on his left shin, and his right upper arm - he knew that the doctors couldn’t test his _mind_.

Doctors, for all they were good for (which was a _lot_ ), couldn’t examine his mind while he was under.

Jaune remembered something he’d once seen about near-death experiences, about how they changed people. It made them more eager to give back, have fewer regrets, speak their mind, love more and feel more. It made them better people, all because they were a quarter’s width away from the soft kiss of death.

And, when thought about that way, it made sense.

He wanted _more_ . More than just what love he had, he wanted _to_ love, he wanted _to be_ loved, he wanted everyone he knew to _feel_ love and _know_ love. He wanted them to be fulfilled, and happy, and content with their lives to the point they wouldn’t regret dying that very afternoon. 

Everything he wanted, could be summed up by the concept of love.

Yet, there were still parts of him that doubted himself - wondering if he was selfish for wanting love, more love than what just his family and Pyrrha could provide him, and that led him to a new question: Did he want everyone to be loved, or did he want women? 

Boundless and limitless women, more and more, did he want to become a womanizer?

Shaking his head as he shampooed it, he let the bubbles run down his back, citrus smell rising upwards in the showers’ steam. No. That wasn’t true. Jaune didn’t want limitless women, what he wanted was love. It was simple, but that raised a new question.

If making someone feel loved meant becoming romantic with them - meant dropping down those defences we show other people to become emotionally intimate with them… Would he still do it? Would he love someone if it meant breaking boundaries, tearing down walls, beyond the emotional hurt that it could bring one, or both parties if it went wrong?

 _That_ was the most important question, because if the answer was _no_ , then he didn’t want everyone to be loved. Unless you were willing to sacrifice everything for your dream, it wasn’t a dream it was make-believe - something you told yourself you’d do but never try, something you’d talk about and want, but never strive for, or hurt for.

And all of that didn’t matter, _because the answer to the question, was_ **_yes_ **. 

Clambering out of the shower lest he misses his meeting with his girlfriend, he strolled over to the mirror, towel wrapped around his waist. He looked at himself, at the scars, his face, his eyes, his long hair. Jaune was about to bend down to retrieve his razor before stopping, eyes tracing over his own body.

He _had_ changed.

Nothing so clear as to be remarkable to the doctors, but when they had said that nothing had changed they had been _wrong_. Aside from the scars, his skin was different - more clear from blemishes. Where before right at the hairline was some dreadful acne, it was now gone.

Where before Jaune had been in decent shape, but not considered ‘ _proper fit_ ’, now he had lost every pound that could be considered undesirable. Instead of the healthy, yet imperfect body from before, now he was lean. Muscle mass had increased in either amount or visibility in his arms, his chest, his legs. Looking below the towel it was tough to tell, but his penis seemed to be larger. Not enough to be considered strange - almost enough to be considered a figment of his imagination…

But no. Jaune _knew_ his body, and something had changed.

Surely while being out of it and in a coma for two and a half months nothing would’ve changed? Or rather, something would’ve changed but it wouldn’t have been the leaner, more impressive specimen that he recognized in the mirror to be, in fact, him. A nutrient drip could only provide so much - he would’ve gained or lost weight, surely, not gained muscle mass…

Jaune raised his can of shaving cream to his face, spraying out with a sloppy uncaring technique before spreading it around. Shaving carefully for his now sharper, slightly more well-defined face, he washed it off and took care of his nails, considering filing them now that he had a girlfriend, but he knew that could wait until the next day.

Instead, he brushed his teeth and swirled around his mouthwash before getting dressed.

Finding now he had to go one further loop down his belt for his pants to fit as well as they did before, his eyes narrowed. Truly something strange was going on, and it seemed to defy logic… But who was he to know?

He had to wonder: if someone was assured they were normal, _perfectly_ normal, and still felt something was off, who was in the right? Were they strange, or normal? Was the outside observer right, or the person going through it?

Casting all thoughts away, he tossed his previous wear into the hamper and went back to his room, putting on his shoes and heading out of the house to the front steps. Sitting down on the cool concrete, he combed his hair with his hands before giving up when it refused to un-scragglify.

_‘Does the sun feel hotter? Why does the breeze feel so cool and crisp - pleasant on me? Maybe it’s because I’ve spent so long in one position in a bet, inside, but today is looking extra beautiful. The sky is a beautiful blue, the grass a green that would put envy’s to shame… I’ve changed - I’ve changed. There’s no way I couldn’t have changed - I appreciate everything, so much more than before. The birds I can hear, even now. The world as a whole, every little part, to the large things we take for granted. I love it all.’_

Looking upwards and to the right, he saw the girl deserving of so much of his affection walking down the street. She saw him, and her walk turned into a power walk before the excitement took hold, and soon it was the sprint she was so well known for around the country.

“Jaune!”

“Pyrrha!” 

Quite literally as though it was a scene from a movie, the world slowed down around them both until they met, and Jaune felt himself envelop her smaller form, surrounding her in love and care and affection that had been building.

For him, it had been simply hours since they’d last seen one another, for her, it must’ve felt like a lifetime. He could only imagine the pain and the suffering - the doubt of whether he would be okay or not, the thoughts of whether he would accept her giving up to live her life should he die.

All of it was so tragically heartbreaking, and he let her know.

He let her know with his arms, his beating heart. He tried to let her know with his soul, his mind - soon it was his lips, his hands. He traced over her arms, her hands, up her shoulders and around to her back, pulling her closer, until the space between them could hardly be called space at all.

Through his body, he let her know he was sorry - even if it wasn’t his fault, he was sorry.

Lips settling on hers they found their place as though they’d done so a million times before. They appreciated one another, softness and tenderness turning from tenderness to hunger, to passion, into something else. He pulled her closer and closer, until they had to break away for breath, breathless, and placed his forehead against hers.

Jaune looked into her eyes. There were few things more intimate than that on this planet. He would be hard-pressed naming one that could be more intimate at this very moment. He _knew_ his cobalt eyes, shining bright, would be shining into her emerald green orbs, and he saw within them something that could only be called eradicating sorrow. 

It sapped away, leaving behind nothing but that same joyful mirth that he loved so very much.

But something that wouldn’t to leave was the hastily done make-up, the tired eyes, the uneven eyebrows. Her hair, normally perfectly pulled back, had parts that strayed. Rather than be annoyed or disgusted by them as a lunatic would be, he loved her all the more for it.

All Imperfections did between them was bring them closer to one another within their humanity. 

Earlier words, their beautiful names were enough for a minute, the two of them enjoying the silence before Jaune, placing his hands on her hips moved back two inches and spoke. 

“You know, I was really looking forward to saying ‘Jaune? Who’s Jaune?’ when you showed up.”

Red hair swayed as she shook her head, and she teared up for a moment but banished those so quickly he thought he was hallucinating. “It wouldn’t have worked anyway - you texted me to come here, after all.”

“Now that you’re here, the two of us can talk about everything I missed.”

* * *

**~oOo~ The Power of Love! ~oOo~**

* * *

Only one side of the conversation ended up being really full in terms of commentary, which made sense considering for him there wasn’t all that much to say. She’d lived a whole series of months longer than him while awake, and in doing so had all the gossip to share with him.

However, there was only so much time in the day, and it all boiled down to this:

Lives were lived without lives being lost. Nobody ended up getting incarcerated after a fit of ‘Sea Rage’. Noone went on a vacation anywhere, including trips to exotic Mozambique. Instead, everyone basically stayed around town and had a whale of a time.

There was, of course, a period of time in which they were all visiting the hospital together, and preparing for the next school year, but for the most part that had ended once they realized he would understand if they went their separate ways for a bit. They were right, of course, so he was happy they hadn’t spent their entire summer wallowing away because of him.

Jaune appreciated both their concern, _and_ their lack of concern.

During the whole conversation with the lovely girl now made girlfriend, Jaune paid attention to his utmost ability. Surprisingly, it proved rather difficult. Rather than suddenly having a burst of energy for what was essentially a two-and-a-half-month power-nap, instead, he felt the desire to collapse into bed and sleep.

“-so that’s when a-and Nora!” Wheezing into a laugh, Pyrrha held onto his chest. Currently, they were sitting on his bed, his arm around her backs to the wall. “-and she said it should _giddy up!_ ”

Laughing with her even though the story wasn’t as funny told as opposed to an ongoing event, he simply appreciated the company, before looking at his phone. It was late enough at night that he truly was feeling his eyelids sink, and his will to continue disappear. 

“I’m so sorry, Pyrrha, but I truly am exhausted. I’m cool walking you home, but if I’m awake much longer you’ll get pinned underneath me and be unable to move until morning.” 

He could’ve sworn he heard her mumble something under her breath. Sighing, she scooted out of bed and gave him a hand up. “It’s a shame I have to go - but I guess you won’t exactly be travelling the world in the next two weeks, so it’s fine.”

Getting their shoes on quickly, he loaned her a hoodie of his considering the dropping night-time temperature, and soon they were out. The walk to Pyrrha’s place was only four blocks, and at their brisk pace would hardly be a sweat, even less so now that he had apparently become more fit in his sleep.

Doctors hate that one little trick.

Under the streetlamps, there was little to be found - a few bugs, here or there. A sock that had clearly been thrown out of some jackass’ car window. All it did was make him more eager to get Pyrrha home, before getting home himself.

Arriving, he took in her house for the millionth time. Vermillion wood siding made up the outer shell, and it was smaller than some houses on the block. He knew it was deeper than it was wide and had a surprisingly expansive backyard. He knew there were only three bedrooms, one of them for guests, a gym in the basement, and what was otherwise a very normal set of bathrooms and other amenities.

Jaune knew that his girlfriends’ mother was probably alone inside, having her Wednesday glass of wine, possibly thinking about her late husband. But, there were just some cans of worms he couldn’t open, some things that even _he_ didn’t want to know about regarding his passing, and so he just accepted that his girlfriend wouldn’t want to talk about it, and left it like that.

Trust was important, and he had enough to know that Pyrrha would come to him if she ever needed anything.

Once more standing together on her front steps, he didn’t know what to say. Funny, how after all they had been through there could still be moments in which awkwardness arose, either from a situation or the lack of one. 

But Pyrrha, empathetic girl she was, took her hands in his and kissed him just once, slowly.

“We should get together again Friday. I’m sure we can get the gang all together for a small trip or something - maybe to the beach?” She asked, and he smiled. She was hardly wrong, a beach trip was the only thing they could realistically fit in at this point in the year.

“Sounds great.” Scratching the back of his head, he watched her open her door and step inside.

 _‘Time to get to bed_.’

Walking back, he was almost entirely working on muscle memory to get home. With every blink, his eyes stayed closed for a moment longer than they did the blink before. Soon he had blinked and the next thing he knew he was in front of his house already walking up to the front door.

His mouth mouthed something to someone sitting on a couch in his living room, and he proceeded to fall _up_ the stairs. He blinked again - now he was in his room, pulling off his pants and falling into bed, rolling under the covers.

Moonlight streamed in the room’s window, touching a now dusty desk as his mind wandered off into the idle things man dreamed of as one was awake. Soon he was sleeping, thoughts little more than brain-drug fueled shapes and colours, that eventually took form as people, and places.

Dreams were an amazing thing, and in the next moments, one particular figment of his dream-addled mind became all too real.

All he saw was darkness. Massive and all-consuming, the blackness contained nothing until shafts of light crisscrossed through and disappeared again. He felt like he was suffocating and hyperventilating all at once. Jaune felt crushed, and at the same time had never felt so weightless and untethered.

Like he was floating in the vacuum of space, there was no heat or noise.

Gentle lights flowed into a spot in front of him and allowed him to see his hands. The light flowed, brighter until he could _feel_ his hands, his skin, his senses alight once again, taking in the environment.

The darkness was soft and squishy. At the same time as it was soft, it crunched. Enough to absorb sound, and give the room the feeling that it was made out of a special brand of black snow. Yet soon, there was more to it.

Rising out of the darkness came evergreen grass, spiralling outwards from his position. Rising out of the darkness came trees with white bark, glowing ethereal and clawing towards what turned into a beautiful starry sky that emitted celestial light.

But, the greatest light he knew was the pool of it in front of him. The light that, even as he watched, went from light to _life_ , in all of its beauty and tragedy. Tragedy in the sense that life was always created only to later be destroyed.

 _“Yet, that facet of life is what makes life living, is it not?”_ Came a voice, echoing, before concentrating on him. Like a velvet whisper against his skin, he felt the voice caress his neck, his wrists, his ankles, his face.

Something rose from the light.

His eyes adjusted, and his mind followed along until he could place what he was seeing.

Utterly naked, the being had no shame. He couldn’t help but look at the long shapely legs, the figure that was eerily unnatural in its perfection in his eyes. Hourglass proportions took hold, the amorphous light in the center became a slim waist. Hips formed and expanded, healthily. Soon there were breasts - massive and round and perfectly placed.

Slender arms, beautiful shoulders, and gorgeous collarbones formed. Around them came a gown, long black fabric flowed on silent winds, and select red markings appeared on the feet, arms and hands.

Glistening skin changed into a soft, incomprehensibly smooth texture. Hair formed and flowed down the beings’ back before it was grasped by invisible fingers and arranged around the head. The only thing left was the face, which was arranged, and rearranged twice before luscious, shaded lips appeared, and eyebrows grew.

Then, her eyes opened. 

Contrast to her skin, her sclera was black, and her irises a deep unforgettable crimson. 

_“Life is fascinating in that sense… The only reason our actions, our time, has value is because one day we will cease living. The pure creator of value, in the entire universe, to anything which can appreciate value, is the thought that one day something of value may no longer be appreciated.”_

Jaune knew she was right. 

“Who are you?” He said, feeling nothing. Not fear, not anger, or joy. No, that wasn’t correct. He didn’t feel any of _those things_ , but he did feel _something_. “Where am I? How is this happening? Is it happening at all?”

It floated as opposed to walking. It came near him, the sensual being raising slender hands to his face. It invaded his personal space, becoming closer than even he and Pyrrha had been earlier, pressing its breasts against his chest as she caressed his face.

Her fingers brought traced fire along his skin, every nerve tingling under her touch. What he knew was silvery, unnaturally beautiful nipples pushed against a shirt he never knew he was wearing. He felt any worries melt away. The woman stood slightly shorter than him, and so he looked down into her eyes, crimson orbs acting as gateways to somewhere else.

 _“I am_ **_Salem_ ** _.”_

Deep in his bones, he felt something. He felt spiders crawl up his skin, more intense than any feeling like it he could recall. He felt his legs shudder, jaw clench and relax. His heart pounded, and his mind raced until he felt light in the head.

 _“You are in the sweetest dream you will ever recall… As for how it’s happening? Jaune, let us play a game, you and I…”_ Salem said, humming for a moment. It was a sound he couldn’t have heard elsewhere, disturbingly unique. 

_“When did your life irrevocably change?”_

“Two and a half months ago.” 

_“Why did it change two and a half months ago?”_

“A rogue meteorite apparently landed right next to me. Broke some bones - put me in a coma.”

Salem smiled, her lips taking the form so, so easily. She stepped back from him, and he took in a deep breath. He barely noticed it at the time, but he hasn't breathed in what felt like minutes. Minutes passing in seconds, seconds passing in who knows how long.

_“You were put into a coma because I had to prepare you for what was to come. There is far more going on than anyone may realize, and as of this moment, you are at the centre of it all. While you have the illusion of choice, the choice has already been made - yet still, I will ask… Jaune Arc, will you help me?”_

He swallowed, Adam’s apple bobbing. 

Crimson eyes stared at him, patiently. He didn’t know what she wanted him to do. Should he sit and think about it? Weigh the pros and cons mentally? Was there anything to weigh at all if she’s apparently already made the decision for him? 

“I’ll help you, Salem.”

Gone at that point was any illusion of freedom that might have remained. 

Jaune knew that it was a questionable choice to make, but what choice did he truly have? All of this could simply be a dream in which he would later laugh about over breakfast, or cry about to a psychiatrist. Yet, even if it wasn’t, Jaune had decided that he would help her. 

Perhaps it was old-fashioned of him, but a person in need was a person he’d help. 

_“Then please, allow me to explain.”_ Salem opened her arms, putting her substantial cleavage on display. Soon, they were both floating, and rising upwards above the world she had created. Moving faster, two of them quickly ascended until the air would’ve become thin around them. 

Below them were the grass and trees from earlier. A lake of shimmering silver was to the left, to the right was mountains restraining dark thunder clouds that released a silent rain.

 _“What you see below you, is_ **_my_ ** _world. It is the perfect image of what it could have been if only my underlings had let me run things the way I wanted to run them. Instead, I was drawn in by their ambitions, and turned onto a path of warfare.”_

He watched as the world was shrouded in flames of all colours, heights and arrangements. The fire raged and burned, sending up smoke as it rolled over the world like a violent tide. Time sped, and like a timelapse, he saw the trees turn molten and melt away. He saw the stars above him dim, covered in a thick haze.

Silhouettes moved beneath him, through the flame as though they could swim within it. They were of all shapes, they were of all sizes. They were unnatural, _disturbing_. There was something viscerally upsetting about their shape, about the fact that their shadows existed even within the raging, fiery world below.

_“Your kind would consider us alien. We are all that and more - we are the Grimm. There are many of us, ranging wildly in ability and shape. We take whatever form we find suitable, or pleasing. Our only constraints are those placed upon us by thought itself.”_

Aliens. Real, mother fucking aliens.

For someone like him who could accept the idea that aliens were real, it was still shocking to have explained to you that he was talking to one. It was still shocking to be given a story that seemed to be heading in the direction of their destruction.

_“Queen of the Grimm. That was what they called me, and that is what I am... However, soon I was Queen of naught more than ash and whatever bones of my civilization remained… And that is no fit domain to rule.”_

“I need to be honest, if I agreed to help you take over human and Faunus kind earlier, this was all a big misunderstanding. I mean, I would do a lot, but I won’t doom my own species just because -”

Nothing in the world moved.

The dream stopped, and he was worried that he had accidentally signed his death sentence.

But then, she started _laughing_ . An alien being, regal and superior. Something capable of creating worlds within his dreams, a being capable of changing to whatever form they wished _laughed_ at his words.

There was something wrong with him because he found it amazing. 

Her laugh echoed around a now silent world, long and deep. Peals of laughter came from a place deep down within her, clearly aching to be free. Seconds ticked by, then minutes. Time was difficult to feel as he was never tired, and the world never changed - days could have passed, and he still would’ve enjoyed every moment of her pleased laughing.

_“Jaune, I have not come to conquer your world. I have come to save it.”_

“Save?” The fact that the world needed saving at all implied danger to it, to begin with.

_“I dreamed that Earth would be the perfect place to create a new, idealized world for the populace. I desire not a world of my own creation. My only desire is a world of people who may live their lives free of oppression, loving me. Is wanting the love of the masses so wrong if I grant them every wish in return?”_

_“Unfortunately, my departure from my dead planet did not go unnoticed. While they left sometime after me, it is only some time until my pursuers feast their eyes on this paradise. They will seek to do what they did to my world, to yours. They will subjugate you, break you, turn you into their mortal playthings.”_

“And what can we do in the face of this? I doubt I could help much. I’m barely anything special.”

 _“Barely anything special he says!”_ Salem said, once more her lips curling into a smile. She floated closer to him, placing her hands on his shoulders, before pulling him into the deepest most intimate hug he had ever experienced.

Despite their height difference, the flying meant he was pressed under her chin. His face rested on her bountiful cleavage, breasts acting as the perfect pillows. His arms wrapped around her waist on instinct, and he felt her stroke his back, skin tingling with every touch.

He smelled her. Scents of everything he loved came with it. The citrus of his father’s soap that he had not smelled for years and years came rushing back. The smell of a log fireplace came to mind. His eyes watered, tears unnoticeably silver. 

_“Everyone who has ever accomplished anything at one point thought that they were normal and that you are. The abnormal are impressive and spoken about, but there will always be the often-overlooked common man… And it is always the common man that rises to the occasion. Alien or native, it is always the common man that rises to the challenge, and fights until he can give no more.”_

_“_ **_That_ ** _is who you are, Jaune. Someone who will fight, for me, until the end.”_

Pulling him closer yet, Salem held him as he accepted it. She held him until he was done being held, and she would have loved holding him forever still. She held him until he knew her contours until he knew that there was nothing malevolent about a Queen such as this.

 _Intent_ had seeped through, from her to him in their hug.

Suddenly, Jaune trusted her as though he’d known her for a hundred years.

“Yet, what if I am still too weak? Salem, I will do anything to save Earth, but what if anything isn’t enough? What if my hardest isn’t good enough? We’re always told to be stronger, be better, faster, smarter, be _more_ than what we are, and yet what if there’s a limit to how much I can be?”

_“Jaune, with me there are no limits.”_

Between them, closeness was gone once more, and they were feet away from one another. He looked at the Queen of the Grimm and noticed her glowing hands. She gestured in front of herself, and floating in the air in front of him came hundreds of symbols he couldn’t read.

_“When I put you in the coma, I robbed you of two and a half months of your life, and for that I am deeply sorry. But your body before wouldn’t have been able to handle the gifts I may grant you. Your body still will have to undergo certain releases to keep a hold of the gifts it will contain.”_

“Gifts like what?”

Salem smiled and her lips turned a deep luxurious red. 

_“First, I healed your body and recreated it to better contain the gifts. Then, I gave you that power permanently. You may sustain damage, and you will still experience pain… However, unless you are killed, you will heal. I have copied your anatomy for my own form here, yet I am still unfamiliar with just how to make it function perfectly… Playing God is difficult, so there may be oversights with its functions.”_

“Like weak points where the power doesn’t apply?”

_“More like points in which the power works constantly to its fullest. Power wouldn’t be much good if it was conditional, or functioned with weaknesses now, would it? That said, it can be overwhelmed with too much damage… Do not think you can stand in the path of a nuclear bomb and survive.”_

“I wasn’t exactly planning on sitting in the blast zone.”

Her majesty chuckled at that. 

_“Now, I will offer you strength, stamina, and speed. Basic enhancements are the most I can do until my power is restored to its fullest - I required quite a bit of energy to arrive here. Other powers can be created now that you are linked to the Grimm system, however, what form they are transferred to you is unique.”_

“Unique? As in you don’t know what way the system you take these powers from will manifest in?”

_“Precisely. The system is something I have an inherent ability to use, however, I do not understand how it functions. If I am to make you a defender of your planet against my species, the system will do its best to assist me… Just as it will assist the invaders in invading, as is only fair. Jaune, you are our hope.”_

The world shuddered. The ground cracked, and light exploded outwards from the fissures to the center of the planet below. The mountains crumbled, the flames disappeared. Salem too was enveloped in light, yet her time had not yet arrived.

“I will win for you, Salem.”

_“You will have time to prepare Jaune, and I will hardly be leaving you alone. From this point, I will be with you for every step of the way, observing, stepping in, offering advice. If you are to be this planet’s champion, my champion, I will do my best to assist you.”_

A pale hand raised to his face, tilting his face upwards.

Ruby red lips connected with his and a euphoria bubbled upwards in his chest. He could feel them, soft as heaven and passionate as sex personified. It was a deep kiss of trust, passion, some kind of belief and perhaps just a little bit of love.

He would have remained in that moment forever, lips of the Queen on his, but his dream had other plans.

Stepping back, Salem looked down at her now cracking skin. Light poured through from within her, outwards until he could barely see her silhouette anymore. She gazed at him, her crimson eyes locking onto his, her breath seemingly taken.

_“Choices across all of the time brought us together, Jaune Arc. When you succeed, you will take your reward for fighting so valiantly, for working so hard, for being so good, and such a paragon of justice. You will take your reward and join me, as King of the World.”_

With that, the light intensified tenfold, and she ceased existing.

Mere moments later it felt as though every molecular bond that made him up was torn asunder.

* * *

**~oOo~ The Power of Love! ~oOo~**

* * *

**Note:** This one is shorter - not because I’m skimping, but because the next chapter is long and this was a natural stopping point to the chapter. I hope Salem’s reveal came out as well as I felt it did.

That said, I _would_ like to point out that as this story is mainly an excuse to have a connected universe for smut with an ongoing storyline, characterization may vary… I am unsure of just how seriously it’ll be taken, and that means things may be somewhat splotchy.

However, as per usual, you can trust that I will try my best.

(Also, I’m sure as always that I _still_ need Beta-readers. If you want to be a friend and help elevate all my work up some levels, that would always be appreciated - let me know somehow and we’ll get talking.)

**-DragonManMax**


	3. Champion

**‘I do not own RWBY. It was created by Monty Oum, and is owned by Roosterteeth.’**

**~The font ‘Cambria’ is recommended, for your viewing pleasure.~**

**Note:** So, I suppose at this point I should put this out there - this story will have incest. Jaune’s mother and sisters take up 8 of the 43 Potential Romantic Partner slots. Ideally, I will get to all of them in time. 

That said, I’m still looking for beta-readers (and seemingly always will be), and am going to be writing more starting Saturaday the 16th. 

This is where the smut starts by the way.

* * *

**The Power of Love!**

**Chapter III**

* * *

Jaune was up with a start. 

Ultimately, he wasn’t surprised that his heart was pounding and electricity raced through his veins. The pain of being vaporized almost echoed in him, as though he could reach out and grasp the memory of living his non-existence.

Either it had been an extremely vivid dream that he remembered every detail of, or it was real.

Rolling out of bed, his thoughts turned to checking his phone.

Apparently he had woken up hours before his alarm was set to go off. 

It had taken him hours the night before to fall asleep, though he barely remembered the experience… It had taken forever to fall asleep despite his exhaustion, and yet he had woken up earlier than usual, with more energy than he had ever had in the morning time?

Something was amiss indeed.

Turning his mind to his bedroom, he realized in the soft morning light that it would need cleaning. Small dusty threads hung from the ceiling, and his desk had remained totally undisturbed while he was gone. His sheets would need a wash, and his pillow a fluffing.

He felt within him the urge to get to work doing something, _anything_ with the energy he had.

Beginning in nothing but his boxers, he quickly snuck out of his room and grabbed all the supplies he would need. Stripping his bed he tossed the sheets, pillows and duvet into the hallway before flipping his mattress for good measure.

Taking everything off his desk and unplugging the cables, he realized he could remember where everything was plugged in minutes after the fact. He could remember the pattern of his sheets exactly, the layout of his room from years ago. 

Jaune could discern the portions of the wall where the paint was ever so slightly brighter, hiding behind posters from the colour stripping sun for years before the posters came down. He looked at the colour and focussed, and how vivid it was increased, ever so slightly.

While his eye for detail had never been terrible, it most certainly had never been _that_ finely tuned.

Dusting away, he was done within the hour, and things were much more pleasant within his room. The window was opened to let in some fresh air and air out anything stale. His closet was clean, the floor swept, bed made strictly to certain parameters he’d never cared about before.

_‘Mum would be proud.’_

Looking at his phone once more he checked the time. He had another hour and a half until the rest of his family woke up. Deciding to make use of the time, he grabbed some clean clothes before heading to the shower.

Forgoing the usual post-shower admiring of himself in the mirror while in deep thought for once, he restocked the towels and grabbed the family hamper, lugging the usually quite heavy basket down the stairs with relative ease.

It was only while loading up the laundry machine with colours that he stopped for a moment.

Higher attention to detail, lifting heavier objects such as his mattress and a laundry basket long overdue filled with the closing of nine people with relative ease? Not to mention the energy he had hadn't waned for a single moment since he’d woken up.

Suddenly, the possibilities of his dream being reality had become less possibility and more of a fact.

Rotating to the kitchen, he began getting everything he needed to make pancakes ready. Getting to work, soon the kitchen was filled with the delicious smell of his cooking, and he knew for sure that when his family woke up they would be rather pleased with him.

Ultimately it was the least he could do to apologize for freaking them out the day before. (Though really, their overreaction was not his fault. Neither was it his fault that the hospital decided to send nobody in to check on him previous to calling his family and proclaiming him dead, which truly felt like criminal negligence towards someone under their care.)

_“You are surprisingly adept at cooking.”_

“Fwagh!” Flinging the current pancake that was cooking to the ceiling he turned and whipped the pan behind him. Meeting no resistance he swung wide and tripped on his own feet, barely catching himself before coming face to face with the hot pan.

_“Good reaction time, though it would be best not to assault your family members the same way when they arrive downstairs. I doubt they can let it pass through them.”_

Behind the counter sat Salem, having moved from directly behind where he was cooking, her elbows on the table, chin resting on her hands. Her attire had hardly changed at all, though her shape was different than it had been last night - chest slightly smaller, arms slightly more muscular. 

“What are you doing here? Wait! You’re real! Wait - you’re real unless I’m crazy, right?”

_“Real as the pancake dripping off of your ceiling, Jaune.”_

Quickly moving the pan beneath the dripping food and wondering how he could clean up the mess he’d made, he looked into her crimson eyes, which then shifted. Black sclera became white, and suddenly she was normal looking. 

Opposed to being a terrifying being from another world in their form, she was simply an attractive (albeit pale) woman with long white hair and red irises. It would _almost_ be accurate to call her condition albinism.

“So what’re you doing here? I know you said you’d be with me for every step of the way, but this isn’t quite what I imagined.” Jaune asked, looking at her before getting a new pan out of a cupboard. “And no offence, but my family wouldn’t exactly be welcoming to you if they found you down here.”

_“Clearly. Which is why you’re the only one who can see me. Though, that is more of a side effect of our link, as opposed to a conscious choice on my part.”_

The Queen traced her fingers along his kitchen counter. 

_“You and I are linked. Under different circumstances, one of us could be considered the parasite, leaching off the other for their own benefit. Instead, the relationship between you and I is more symbiotic in nature. I give you benefits, and I use you to benefit everyone, and through them, myself.”_

As he returned to his cooking, there was a silence between them. He had little to say and at the same time a million questions. There was so much to ask, and so much time between them, and yet he didn’t ask a single one.

Perhaps it was his want to remain in normalcy, just for a little bit longer.

“Last night you were talking about the Grimm system and how it would manifest itself uniquely to manifest my powers…” She hummed as he spoke. “What if it’s violent? Or involves me harming myself to get new powers? Then we would have a problem.”

_“Well, really the problem would only be with the morality of the first one. You would heal from near any injury, provided the system does not require you to kill yourself to gain new powers… My, what a cruel twist of fate that would be.”_

“But is it possible that it could become as easy as just imagining new powers gets me some?”

Focussing on the pancake pan, he wished it to be struck by eye-lasers to no success. 

_“Neither is likely, both of those have already existed… The system hates to repeat itself.”_

It was somewhat disturbing to think there at one point existed a being who simply needed to think of a power they wanted and then it would be obtained. It was also disturbing to think that somewhere out there was something that had killed a being like that. 

“I hope we figure it out soon. School starts soon and at that point, I’ll be sort of busy.”

_“Together we may adventure out into the middle of nowhere today to begin experimenting with your powers if you so wish. While it would be far more convenient to do so in a dream, that is a rather draining technique. It takes immense focus even now to materialize behind you like this.”_

“You don’t need to do that. I’d probably be fine if you just spoke to me in my head.”

Hands wrapped around his waist, felt his stomach, before crossing back to hold onto his hips. He felt a warmth behind him, and the soft presence of breasts touching his back. It was almost enough to startle him once more but he restrained himself. 

_“Speaking to you only from the mind does not have the same benefits as speaking to you like this does.”_ Came Salem’s voice, her velvet whisper making shudders run down his spine as her hot breath tickled his ear.

A question came to his mind as she continued holding him as he cooked. He wondered whether to voice it, but considering there was the possibility she already knew he was thinking, he realized there would be little he would ever be able to hide from her.

“Grimm… Are all of them as affectionate as you, Salem?” He asked, putting one hand on hers. He could feel her as though she was physically there, her body having a presence that was more than just mental. “While I am not complaining, you seem to be far more comfortable with me than I with you.”

_“Mmm. Grimm are not naturally very sentimental, or affectionate. However, I must admit, there is something about you Jaune that I simply cannot get enough of. Something about being close to you is appealing… And if we are to be completely honest with one another, I would not offer a position at my royal side to anyone, no matter how much they help me.”_

“Why offer it to me then?”

_“Consider this, Jaune… While you have known me for what is only hours, I have been with you for the past two and a half months. I have trawled through your memories, I have lived every moment of your life. I know your heart, I know your desires, I know your mind, I know your body. That two and a half months for you was your lifetime to me.”_

Jaune could understand that side of it, however invasive it was, someone going through his every memory, some of which even he had forgotten by that point. He could understand how they could be close if she knew everything about him from the last eighteen years of being alive. 

_“Last night I said that choices from across all of time have brought us together. I was not exaggerating, Jaune. Fate may not be a concept I am fond of, but coincidence most certainly exists, and coincidence has placed someone like yourself in my path… And for that, I have only discerned one reason.”_

“Reason being?”

The Queen sighed, face pressing against his back before pulling away. 

_“I have very few doubts that in time you will feel the same, but that reason is love, Jaune. I already know you, and it would not be entirely inaccurate to say that I already_ **_love_ ** _you, Jaune… What kind of love that manifests into between us could take one of many forms, or simply multiple forms at once. What now is important, is how you eventually decide to feel about me.”_

Hearing you were loved was nice.

Hearing that the alien Queen of the Grimm which was offering you superpowers in return for saving the planet was in love with you after watching your entire life through your memories? That was something else.

A part of it most certainly was nice, while another part questioned if that could really be love at all.

Surely, if anybody lived anybody’s entire life through them, they would come to love that person.

_“Life is not that simple Jaune. I have gone through many memories, both those of humans and those of Grimm, and not once have I fallen in love like this before. Understanding someone does not translate to developing affection for them - see all the monsters through history that we understand very well.”_

“You _can_ read my thoughts,” Jaune said, thinking about the Grimm Queen behind himself. Salem, he had already decided, was someone he trusted. She was someone he would help with her task, not because of the reward, but because she needed his help.

Jaune had decided all of this after knowing her for minutes, in that dream.

“Together we’re going to do a lot of things, Salem. I-I must admit I’m not really sure that I can love you yet… And that fact can change, given time - be it a day, or a year. People can learn to love, and to be honest, there’s a part of me that wants to love you.” He said, feeling slightly bad. Yet at the same time, it was the only reasonable thing to do. “Also, you mentioned that you’ve gone through the memories of other humans?”

Chuckling at that her body rose and fell before she finally detached from him and phased back into her seat at the counter. _“I was simply checking your family’s memories to see if they would pose a threat to the planet. I did not show up in their dreams, I can assure you that much.”_

“Find anything interesting?” He had to admit, his interest was piqued. They were all relatively independent, so he was wondering just what crazy adventures his sisters (or his mother) had gotten up to recently.

It was always good having additional blackmail that came from an impossible to trace source.

_“Oh, you wouldn’t believe it if I told you.”_

As though summoned by their mention, it was at that moment that one of his sisters had decided to come downstairs. Continuing with his flipping of pancakes as another one joined the now rather tall stack, he tossed a “Good morning.” over his shoulder.

“Good morning,” Holly said with a yawn.

Holly was one of the sisters he had always been the closest with, despite their two year age difference. The twenty year old (aspiring) actress spent much time going out with her friends, while at the same time making time for him should he need help with anything that wasn’t _too_ academic.

She’d been a big help for certain courses at school, and he suspected that she would be a big help still.

“Now I know I shouldn’t really have to ask, but some of those pancakes are for me, right? I am _starving_ , and having them just sitting there is driving me nuts.” His sister said, eyeing the golden brown pile of pancakes.

Turning he placed it on the counter and grabbed her a plate from the cupboard as well as some cutlery. “Go nuts, sis. I mean, I’m hungry, but not _that_ hungry.”

Rather un-lady like noises came from behind him as he turned his mind back to cooking. Clearly devouring them, Jaune was pleased that they were well received at least by one sibling. Hopefully, all girls would be so happy about his cooking.

“Do you have any plans for today Jaune? You’ve only got so much summer break left, you should do something!” Holly said, her smooth enunciations coming rapidly in a way only she could achieve. “I’m sure your friends miss you! You guys should go to the beach or something.”

“We, that being Pyrrha and I, already were talking about that yesterday. We’re thinking we’ll get together tomorrow with everyone and sort out a trip like that. If you want to come I’m sure they wouldn’t have any objections.”

“Ah! Speaking of you two, what’s going on, huh?” Bouncing her eyebrows up and down at him, she made little kissy faces. “We were rooting for you guys to get together, and after what we saw last night it seems like it’s already happened.” 

Scratching the back of his head awkwardly he turned off the stove and leaned back. “You guys were watching? That’s just a little creepy, you know?”

“Oi! Don’t avoid the question.” Came the surprisingly intense comment from his older sister, her tone containing something he couldn’t quite place. “Your sisters should know this sort of stuff about you.”

Pressing relentlessly, his sister made him feel like he was a perp from a cop procedural. 

“Just before the meteor shower started we got together if you _must_ know.” He continued, still thinking about how his sisters (or at least one of them) was watching him with Pyrrha last night. “She’s really sweet, as you well know, and I’m happy we’re together. If a little annoyed because I’m apparently so dense.”

Mumbling something Holly avoided eye contact and he heard Salem laugh from somewhere inside. 

“Breakfast!” 

“Thanks, Jaune!” 

“Who’s the man!? _You’re_ the man!” 

“Hot damn!”

“Bing- _pot_!”

Tackled under a group more ferocious and scary than a pride of lions, Jaune was smothered in love and his sisters’ body parts as they made to hug him. Obviously very pleased at the breakfast he’d provided, they scrambled over his free bodily real estate and made for a rather comedic looking totem pole.

Salem could once again be heard laughing at his currently restrained and endangered predicament.

It was then that he noticed something about himself. He was beginning to get aroused by his sisters hugging him. It wasn’t a simple hug, of course, they were fighting over him, in their varying design pyjamas, pressing their soft, fit bodies against him. There was something so pleasant about their hot skin, their breasts, their little competitive giggles, their actions.

And it was the fact that he was beginning to get aroused that worried him. 

He had known his sisters for many years and admittedly had become quite close with them. That had done some work to desensitize them to their womanly charms, but suddenly it seemed like that didn’t matter. He wasn’t thinking about the fact that it was his sisters hugging him.

What he was thinking was that it was five women feeling him up.

Jaune remained thinking about it even as they broke off, and went on their way to eat his breakfast. 

Gone was something inside of him that should have brought him shame thinking about them that way. Gone was the something inside of him that had thought that they were great people and great sisters, replaced with something that simply said that they were amazing.

They were more than sisters. They were his friends, his family, and he loved them. 

Deep inside himself, he felt something stir. He _did_ love them, and he knew they loved him. They were close, and the taboo, carnal thoughts that were now racing through his mind? Of becoming intimate with any, or all of his sisters?

Rather than make him fearful, they nearly made him hard in front of them.

_“Forbidden fruits are often the sweetest. I told you I dug through the memories of your family, and I know their hearts too. Seeing as you are already headed in that direction of thought, I think it is worth reminding you something… Yesterday evening, you thought about love. You thought that unless you were willing to sacrifice everything - to tear down boundaries, walls, and obstacles no matter how great, unless you were willing to try your hardest for your dream, it wasn’t a dream worth having.”_

_“You decided that day that your dream would be making everyone you know feel and know love. To be fulfilled, happy, and content to the point they wouldn’t fear death for a moment. You decided that your answer to ‘would it be worth the breaking of boundaries, and risk of hurt’, was yes.”_

He knew that he had said that - he remembered his conclusions. 

Part of him wanted to reject his past self, even from just hours ago. He wanted to reject the man he had become when thinking about his dreams, his wants, his desires to make people feel loved.

It was that part of him that he wanted to reject that wanted to make them feel loved, be happy. It was that part of him that wanted to drop his defences and become emotionally intimate with them, sisters or not.

Other parts of him conspired to kill that part of his mind and yet he wasn’t letting them do it.

No, he was letting that part of his mind in and accepting that if his dream was to spread love it would mean spreading it to those closest to him if they so wished it. Not just because they might one day come to love him and be happy, but also because he loved them and knew he would try his hardest to make it so.

_“You know they love you too Jaune - and not just in the way a family loves one another. Were they rooting for you and Pyrrha? Yes, they were - because they want you to be happy. But when they wanted that, they wanted for themselves to be the ones in your arms, receiving your affections... And they were willing to throw that dream away for your happiness, because they suspected you would never approve of them, their taboo, loving desires.”_

Something that morning changed in him, and he could feel it.

Suddenly he was looking at his sisters in a different light. 

And it was bad of him, but it shifted him from brother to man. It shifted his looks away from their eyes and to their cleavage, bountiful and beautiful. It shifted his eyes to their hearts, wondering how he could please them as people, but also in bed.

Lust was present in his eyes now, where before it had occasionally appeared only to be banished, it was now welcomed. And it was with those eyes of love and lust that he reevaluated his life and realized just how much the world held him back.

Boundaries such as what was considered taboo were just constructs. They were there to give people their secret dose of shame with their porn to make it all the hotter. Ignoring it meant that he would be able to live his life freely, breaking the boundaries and ensuring people would be happy.

Happiness was worth breaking boundaries for, because whoever decided it wasn’t?

While perhaps less noble, his goal to show everyone they were loved had suddenly increased in magnitude. While remaining loyal to Pyrrha would make her happy, he could make someone else happy by becoming intimate with them, by growing as close to them as he was to her.

Everyone had a responsibility to make themselves and others happy, and who was he to deny anyone of that? Queens, mothers of his friends, friends themselves, family, strangers, _anyone_ who needed loving he could find it within himself to love them provided they were a person _capable_ of being loved.

 _“For the record,_ **_I_ ** _am someone capable of being loved.”_ Came Salem’s velvet voice in his mind again, and he smiled. Even as his vision was filled by his sisters eating their breakfast and chatting idly by, his mind went back to the previous night’s dream.

_‘I know. And I am capable of loving you, Salem.’_

* * *

**~oOo~ The Power of Love! ~oOo~**

* * *

He’d made plans to meet his friends the following day for a get together which would celebrate his recovery. Naturally, they were quite pleased to learn that their longtime friend was okay, and the response, while not particularly heartwarming, still meant a lot to him. 

Closing the text-based communication service he and the friends had a group server on, Jaune gazed at his ceiling. Currently just laying in bed, it was as though his earlier energy had somewhat diminished, and only now he was experiencing the effects of poor rest on his form. 

Salem had resigned herself earlier to the deeper recesses of his being, claiming that she too needed rest after all the work she had been doing recreating his body, and appearing in either dream or in a semi-physical form. 

During those few minutes, he seemed to finally be well and truly alone.

There was no space being encroaching on his every waking thought - as justified as it could be considered to be. There were no sisters clambering for his attention, or letting him know how much they missed him and worried for him. 

No. Jaune Arc had been for the last five minutes, and perhaps that was good enough for him. 

People said that no man was an island, and they could be considered correct in saying that. However, every man needed solitude at some point just to be alone with his thoughts, or to be alone with his lack of thoughts. 

Of course, there were always variables that could not be accounted for.

Jaune’s girlfriend Pyrrha Nikos, was one of those variables.

A moment after he closed his eyes, his phone vibrated with a unique notification noise that could only belong to the video/picture sending service that doubled as another app for texting. Figuring it best not to leave his girlfriend unread, he lifted his phone above himself and opened her ‘snap’.

What he saw was a pleasant selfie of her smiling at him with the caption: _you should come over._

Raising an eyebrow at that he was rather quick to take, and then retake several times an appropriate selfie in return: _alright, I’ll be there in a few minutes._

Getting out of bed, he put on his shoes before grabbing his phone and house-keys. Leaving his room, he was shutting the white door behind him before turning and seeing his mother in the hallway. 

It was a different Jaune looking at his mother than it was the day before. This was a Jaune determined to help save the world, and give people everything they could desire. This was a Jaune who promised himself he would love whoever would take his love, and lust had come back into his eyes as the boundaries fell from his mind.

So it was that same Jaune that _admired_ his mother.

He looked her up and down. From her ideally shaped feet with carefully manicured toenails to her long flawless legs. From her legs to her wide, baby bearing hips and her extremely sexy thigh gap. He looked up, tracing across her slim waist and up to her massive G-cup breasts. Her exposed collarbones were defined and joined with gorgeous shoulders.

Most important of course was the face.

Blessed with good genetics his mother’s hair was a long, extremely healthy blonde, framing a face that easily could have been considered one of the most beautiful he had ever seen. Her cheekbones were high, her lips supple, her eyebrows maintained.

And her eyes. Her bright blue eyes could always look at him and just _know_ if he was troubled.

He knew how hard she worked to maintain herself. Exercising all the time, eating healthily, all while trying to maintain a proper work-life balance. These balances only became more and more pronounced and difficult to achieve with each new child, and later, the death of her husband. Yet still, there she was, tone and fit, an example of the finest woman one could be.

“Leaving the house, Jaune?”

“Yeah. I’m going over to a friend’s place.” 

Juliette Arc looked at him, pursing her lips slightly. “Well, if you feel like you’re healthy enough to go out that’s fine. Just be sure to be careful okay? It was… _Hard_ , having you in the hospital, and for you to just go hurt yourself now would really wreak havoc on us, okay?”

“After your father… We’re all sensitive when you get hurt or are in danger. Losing you too would be one of the most terrible things we could ever experience.” Juliette said, her eyes changing for a brief second, staring into nothing before once more intensely focussing on his face.

That hurt him, just a little bit inside to hear. A reminder that just because he wasn’t at fault, didn’t mean that he didn’t have an emotional effect on them by entering a coma. They were still possibly raw, and him getting hurt should be the _last_ thing he does.

“I understand, mum.” 

“Now come here.” Opening her arms and displaying some phenomenal cleavage towards him, she made it clear the intent was that he should hug her. Imagining himself against her soft body was almost enough to make him decline if only because he wasn’t sure he would be able to fight off the raging erection he was sure could be possible.

Moving closer he hugged his mother, her large chest pushing against him. She was shorter than he was, only five-foot-seven, so his head rested on her shoulder with a bit of a hunch on his part. Pulling her closer, his eyes naturally closed as their embrace continued.

Between the two of them, there had always been a closeness, and it was nice to have that reaffirmed in that hug, even as her soft behind was only a foot away from his hands. He could smell her shampoo - some flowery scent he couldn’t quite place. He could feel himself stir, not enough to be noticeable, but he couldn’t deny his mother’s charm, closeness, and looks had an effect on him that just weeks before would have driven him to extreme shame.

However, now it almost titillated him more that it was his mother whose breasts were against him.

Pulling away the two of them separated and he couldn’t help but notice a very faint tint on his mother’s cheeks that must have felt similar to the hotness he felt on his own. Coughing into his arm, Jaune pointed back over his shoulder.

“Anyways, I need to get going. Love you!” Turning around and moving quicker than necessary down the stairs and out the door, he began the brisk walk to Pyrrha’s house. 

_‘Close one. Man, I seriously can’t believe it… I know it’s okay, it has to be okay for me to want to love them, and based off of what Salem hinted at earlier, my sisters love me at least too… But that’s put more thoughts in my head, of more than love. I can’t help but want to make love to them, even my mother for fuck’s sake! But she’s just so perfect - how could any hot blooded man resist her?’_

Outside, the summer’s air was becoming cooler. His mind eliminated its previous thoughts and instead began thinking about what it was Pyrrha could need from him, or if it was simply a call to spend time together. Really, he had no problem spending time with her; Pyrrha was great and he loved spending time with her. 

Really, he owed her some one-on-one time. After apparently being dense enough not to notice a single advance on her she’d made over their years of knowing each other, it was the least he could do to actually make her feel like his girlfriend.

Increasing his pace due to excitement, he considered sprinting the entire way to test out whether the increased speed and stamina Salem had spoken of had taken effect yet. Yet, he refrained, because neighbours looking outside to see a blond guy sprinting down the street would be sure to remember him. 

Neighbours were nosy like that sometimes.

Eventually finding himself on Pyrrha’s cul-de-sac, the vermillion house came into view. Surprisingly, there were no lights on, but considering the sun was still just high enough above the horizon to shed some light it was possible she simply had them off. 

He considered texting her that he’d arrived before ignoring that part of him. Instead, he walked up to her door and rang the doorbell, feeling somewhat awkward without having brought her anything. Flowers may be, or a muffin basket would have been appreciated for sure - instead he, silly-sausage he was he’d not brought anything.

“Just a second!”

There was some rustling behind the door, and he wondered what she could possibly be doing. Last-minute cleaning perhaps? The noise grew until there was what sounded like someone pressing against the door - a sound he could only hear no doubt because of Salem enhancing him.

She opened the door and his jaw dropped. 

Clad in nothing but a romantic red satin and lace lingerie dress, black heels, and some silk stockings, his girlfriend quickly pulled him in and shut the door. Her make-up was perfect, her brilliant green eyes absolutely sparkling, her lips looking more full and beautiful than he had ever seen them. 

Her creamy white breasts strained against the lingerie, her legs long and gorgeous. He took in her waist, thin with an incredibly tone stomach some strove for years to obtain. He looked at her shoulders, her arms, her feet, her neck, her perfect hair.

A smell that was familiar to him he could suddenly place - her perfume from two years ago that he had gotten her for her birthday because she had mentioned wanting it all the way back then. A seemingly shifting mix of juniper berries, and pine needles, before landing on the enchanting vanilla. 

Pushing him until his back was against her front door she pulled him down into a kiss. 

It was hot and passionate, her clear enthusiasm doing nothing to stop him from getting aroused. Her lips were soft, and he pressed against her, his hands coming to hold her waist, before her own came down and directed them further, to her perfect behind.

Taking that as a sign he had free reign, his hands tensed, giving her ass a squeeze. The flesh was firm yet soft and spilled through his fingers just enough to heighten his sense of arousal even more as she moaned into his mouth. 

Kiss intensifying, Pyrrha’s tongue probed for entry and he let her. Before long the two of them were engaged in a steamy makeout session of groping in the front entranceway to her house. Pyrrha ran her hands through his hair, the feeling calming at the same time as it was deeply pleasant. He pulled her closer until her lace-clad body pressed against him tightly.

Jaune couldn’t get enough, kissing her back until soon they broke away for air and he took his turn of control, turning them both and backing her up until her back was to the entrance-way wall, his lips on her soft, exposed neck.

She mewled pleasurably, grabbing his head as he kissed her all over. Her neck, her chest, her chin, her lips. Soon she took his hand and broke the two of them away. He was looking into her eyes and the two of them were enjoying the closeness from what they had just shared.

“What’s this all about? I’m definitely on board, and really quite pleased, but I would like to know.” Jaune asked, looking down and admiring his girlfriend’s tone, hot body. He tried to commit as much of this moment as he could to his memory. 

Her face broke out into a smile and she pulled him closer, moving her mouth near to his ear. Her warm breath made him shiver, his spine tingling. 

“You and I have the house to ourselves today. My mother is out, and I wanted to do something special.” She said, before tracing the fingers of one hand across his chest. “After you got hurt, I realized how soon everything could end, and I realized there’s no point in waiting?”

“No point waiting for what?” He asked, head slightly tilted before it dawned on him. He looked at her smile, the way she bit her lower lip, just a bit. It was seductive and awesome, she was truly amazing. “You mean-”

“Indeed I do.” Once more pulling him into a kiss, she pulled him closer. “Now let’s go upstairs.”

Giving a girlish ‘eep!’ and then a joyful laugh as he backed up and lifted her up in a bridal carry with ease, Jaune carried her up the thankfully wide staircase without a single issue. Soon he was in her room, her decorations reminding him of all the pleasant times he’d been there before he placed her on the bed.

Eyes roaming over her, then to the rest of the room, he saw that the curtains were very slightly open, letting in the colours of the setting sun. Lit candles were on the windowsill, the bedside table, the top of the dresser. Rose-petals were scattered on the bed, and it became clear she had put some thought into making both their first times special.

“Pyrrha, I love you so much.” He said, moving back to her on the bed as she lay there, her legs spread open. Getting on his knees, Jaune ran his hands up her silky stockings, and smooth, amazing legs. 

“Jaune, I love you more,” Pyrrha said, her voice quivering as his hands ran higher up her thighs, soon coming to the red panties that adorned her nether regions. His fingers probed closer and he heard her breath hitch for a second before he got closer.

Fingers finally hooked beneath the edges of her dampened panties, the red fabric sliding off her legs with some help from them both. Her face a blushing red, Pyrrha’s heart beat faster, filled with love and lust as Jaune’s mouth met the glistening perfection of her pussy.

Moans and gasps of ecstasy soon followed.

Kissing, sucking and licking away at her burning loins, his girlfriend’s juices ran down his chin. He worshipped her, tongue intruding in her nether regions in this sacred intimacy. Trembling legs followed as Pyrrha began making it even more pleasurable for herself; one hand reached down to play with her clit, and another slid beneath the bra-portion of her lingerie to fondle her breast and nipple. 

His own hands reached up and took hold of her legs, pulling himself further in as his tongue ran along her slit, her flesh in his mouth as he tasted her. He gently nibbled her and she gasped in bliss, now furiously fingering her clit, as he swirled his tongue around her sopping tight pussy.

Shuddering and spasming as he continued sucking, kissing, and eating out her burning hot cunt, Pyrrha could feel her climax fast approaching and let out a long drawn out moan even as she desperately panted for air. 

Vigorously continuing for the next few minutes, Jaune brought her to levels of pleasure she had never been able to achieve on her own. Further and further, he continued, never tiring or stopping his pleasurable ministrations - he didn’t have any experience and yet judging by his girlfriend’s noises he was doing something right.

“Mmmmh!~ Oh my god! I’m gonna- I’m gonna-” She gasped once more, one hand clamping around her breast as he increasingly made her feel better and better. Her long legs wrapped around his muscular back and pulled him further into her. “Oh fuck, I’m gonna cum! Jaune!” 

Gushing all over his face as he continued through her orgasm, she felt nothing but intense tingling pleasure and further throes of orgasm for what felt like a minute. Her heaving chest rose and fell as her legs, shaky and weak from the massive orgasm she’d just experienced released his head from her pussy.

Up from his knees now, Jaune put one knee between her legs and climbed onto the bed to join her, his body parallel to hers. He kissed her, and her face was hot and burning for so many reasons at once; love, lust, pleasure. 

“Did I do it right?” He said cheekily between kisses and her exhausted beautiful laugh filled the space as the two of them moaned into more kisses. Her green eyes were filled with as much love as one person could contain. “I will take that as a ‘yes’.”

“You did amazingly. You passed with _flying_ colours.” She said, still wavering voice as she breathed. Her hands ran up and down his still clothed chest, before gesturing he should get on his back. Rolling off next to her, Pyrrha now was on top, straddling his still clothed waist.

“Won’t be needing clothes from this point on Jaune,” Pyrrha said, red hair strewn down her shoulders. Pulling off his shirt and tossing onto the floor, she ground her drenched nether regions against his pants before his strong hands reached up to her waist. 

Removing herself, she unbuckled his belt as he laid back for an _extremely_ well-deserved rest. Pyrrha would count herself girlfriend of the year if she managed to bring him even one-tenth the pleasure he’d given her with that orgasm. 

After all: after that, she would consider him the boyfriend of the damn millennia!

Pulling off his pants and underwear at once, what was a bulge became a massive length. Bigger than anything she’d seen in porn, his ten inches was a huge cock of proportions she would’ve never expected her lovely boyfriend to be hiding in his pants. She almost wondered how he walked around with something so huge in there.

Her nether regions once again quivered at the thoughts she would soon have that inside her.

“It’s my turn now, Jaune.” Crawling up between his legs, she was on her front side, one hand carefully reaching towards his throbbing length. One hand wrapped around the base and began pumping, her pace increasing when he released a moan. 

Soon, she felt ready and moved her beautiful face closer to the tip.

Kissing the tip, her soft lips made him shudder. Soon, those same lips were wrapped around the tip like a loli-pop, and her tongue swirled around, tentative sucks being made as the spongy appendage brought him pleasure. 

Finally having built up the courage, she hummed, beginning bobbing her head on his phallus. Back and forth along his length, her lips and tongue sucked and swirled around him, the tight suction of her wet mouth making his hands clutch the bedsheets. 

Unable to take him all the way due to her gag reflex, instead she just bobbed up and down, taking in his scent, feeling herself get wetter and wetter even as she did so. Ramping up her efforts, she took more and more of him, her brilliant green eyes finally looking up to make eye contact, which made the act all so much hotter once he saw the enthusiasm. 

Massive cock covered her saliva and spit as she sucked, she savoured his unique taste and smell, her tongue still wrapping around and sliding up and down. Growing volume was joined with even more passionate and intense slurping and slobbering up and down his cock, before she took her head off when her hand felt the base of his cock begin pulsing. 

Tightly holding she edged him as he nearly orgasmed, her small strokes bringing him intensified pleasure while he narrowly avoided spraying her with his cum. His heaving chest continued doing so for a moment before he sat up and pulled her into his arms, rolling them both over until he was on top once more.

Pyrrha’s legs were spread, and he was between. Her bra pulled down and then taken off, revealing the soft and beautiful D cups that belonged to his girlfriend. He admired her sexy and toned stomach, her legs, her neck, her face, her eyes, her everything. 

Growing arousal as they kissed over and over again grew to grinding, as he humped his cock against the outside of her nether regions, each wet still with the other’s fluids. Soon her head tilted back, and her hands found their way to his shoulders.

“Do it Jaune. _Please._ ” She said, biting her lip to restrain a moan as he continued grinding at her. 

“You’re on birth-control right Pyrrha?” Jaune asked, moments away from pushing himself inside her. He had the thought just as he was about to begin; he had brought no condoms, and it appeared as though she hadn’t brought any either.

“Indeed Jaune.” She said, massaging his shoulders before kissing him again. Her tongue licked his lips and she pulled away, before reaching one hand down and spreading her extremely wet and sensitive nether lips. “ _Cum wherever you’d like._ _I’m yours.”_

Unbelievably turned on by not only _that_ but _her_ , Jaune lined himself up and pushed him into her shallow depths, tip entering her and making her moan in delight. Soon, he bent down and kissed her, pumping his hips so as to insert himself deep within his girlfriend, finally connected.

Massive length within her, he filled her up utterly and completely, her tight cunt wrapped around him, hot and wet. Her G-spot was stimulated even now, him just being inside her, he was so big and so deep. After a second of adjusting to them both losing their virginities, and the feeling driving Pyrrha to moans of pleasure, he started pumping his hips.

She adjusted, and soon every sensitive spot she had inside her was getting rubbed. Pushing himself further and harder into her, he pumped long hard and slowly, feeling himself pushing against her cervix at the end of every stroke.

His ministrations drove her wild, body writhing this way and that occasionally at every particular good stroke. Her pussy convulsed on his length, her muscle control letting her squeeze him harder than anything he’d experienced before. 

“Oh fuck! Jaune! Agh!” Pyrrha put up her arms and pulled him closer to her, so their two sweaty bodies rubbed as he pumped harder and faster inside of her, his pace increasing every second. He could feel her erect nipples rubbing against his chest as her tits bounced from the intense pounding he gave her.

Rising up again he looked down at his girlfriend.

Hot sweaty skin beneath him, her abs glistened in exertion as even now he continued savagely fucking her. Her perfect round breasts bounced into her face as a near delirious smile appeared on her face and her tongue popped out for a second before getting sucked back in. Every second or two as he increased his pace further and further her emerald eyes would meet his before bouncing away.

Perfect hands took hold of her sheets and began pulling as she threw her head back and released a long moan, before pantingly giving more and more as he went on. One of his hands went down to rub her clit, and that _really_ drove her crazy. 

“Jaune! Oh Jaune, oh Jaune, oh Jaune! Oh God, oh Jaune! GOD!” Came her voice rising to a fevered crescendo as she reached a second orgasm for the day, massive cock stirring up her insides as her cunt convulsed and pulsated hotly on his length. 

Leaning down again he kissed her as she gasped for air, legs still quivering down below them both. Her mouth was hot and she was passionate if tired, and they continued even as he went back to his slow _deep_ thrusts inside of her. He wasn’t winded or tired if anything he was raring to continue - feeling her orgasmic quiverings and hearing her constant moans was turning him on as nothing else would.

“That’s two.” Pyrrha managed out between thrusts before kissing him again. Jaune rose up and felt her clench around his meat, her crotch dripping wet from her gushing orgasm before. She quivered again and looked up at him lovingly.

“Care to try another position?” 

“If you’re up for it!”

Que the excited shifting of position as Pyrrha got onto her hands and knees on her bed, being just the right height for Jaune to stand off the side of it and be in line with her pussy. The classic doggy style awaited him, and Pyrrha’s face was against her mattress, one hand playing with her clit as he drove his cock between her thighs against her folds.

“S-stick it in already! God!~” Came the rapid shift in tone as he shoved himself in. Filling up completely different parts of her, Pyrrha could feel her eyes roll slightly. Grabbing onto her soft, heart-shaped ass, he didn’t bother with going slow this time, instead quickly thrusting inside of her as quickly and deeply as he could.

And boy did it work.

Pyrrha shuddered and quivered, gushed on his length and drooled into her mattress. She hadn’t orgasmed a third time but already she was close, her eyes close to rolling up in her head completely as her face took on an ahegao fashion. A drooling fucked mess she bounced along, her perfect ass smacking against his crotch harder and faster.

“Huuuuuah! Uh yeah! Fuuu-” Soon the only noise she made was an incomprehensible shriek as she squirted and covered him in her fluids. Orgasming once more much more intensely than the last two times, she fell forwards off his dick and spasmed on the sheets, face screwed up and drooling as his cock twitched. 

“Hoooouh… Oh, fucking _shit_!” She said. Clearly, Pyrrha’s bad language came out doing dirty stuff like this: normally she wasn’t so fond of swearing. She turned onto her back again and looked at him, raising a red eyebrow. “You still haven’t cum!?” 

“Guess not…” Jaune said, wondering himself how it didn’t happen. She got back to her feet hurriedly and leapt off her bed to the floor in front of him, hot love juice dripping down her thighs. She quivered when his cock smacked against her abs before she turned him around and pushed him so he sat down.

“My turn! I’m going to make you cum if it’s the last thing I do! Otherwise, this is unfair!” 

Squatting on him as he sat, soon Pyrrha’s legs were on either side of his and her glistening wetness was about to be dropped onto his massive cock. She was squatting and already she was below the tip, so she raised herself and took it one hand before guiding it into her hot pocket.

Riding him for everything she had, her hot cunt enveloped him time and time again as she clenched with uncontrollable passion. Up and down she couldn’t stop, it felt too good for her, and she was fit enough to sustain it for a long time. Her perfect heart-shaped ass jiggled and bounced with each up and down motion as he laid back and she continued, hands feeling up his chest. 

“Fuck Pyrrha you’re so tight!” Squeezing him like a vice, Pyrrha continued coming down over and over again. She drew herself just until she would pop off before dropping onto his cock, the massive thing penetrating her cervix straight into her womb.

“YEEEEEEES!” Screeching out as she continued riding, Pyrrha’s face leaned back and her back arched as he reshaped her to fit only him. He looked into her eyes when her face came back around and she continued, impassioned by her miniature orgasm even as she drenched him and the sheets below with her squirting fluids.

Jaune’s hands rushed up and took hold of her bouncing breasts, flicking the nipples as she rode. He got several more long drawn out moans in response. Now she was moving in circles as she went up and down, giving his cock untold new pleasures as she squeezed and squelched along his member. 

“Cum! Cum cum cum cum cum! Do it Jaune! Cum inside me!” 

_That_ drove him off the edge, and his hands went to her hips as he sat up again, shifting those same hands to gripping her firm hot ass. He squeezed her hard making her moan in insane pleasure before he rocked his hips upwards, smacking against her as she rode, and the two of them worked to come further and further together.

He could feel every inch of her, and she could feel him inside every single part of her. She didn’t want him to leave, she wanted him to stay right there, fucking her for always. And she orgasmed a fourth time, eyes rolling back tongue lolling out as she drooled down onto his chest.

“I’m cumming!” Gripping her ass, he pulled her closer as she spasmed and twitched, before he thrust through her orgasm, _finally_ cumming himself and spraying her insides. White enveloped her insides, and he shot out so much so fast it oozed out between the tiny gaps where his cocked filled up her opening entirely.

“Oh yeah, Jaune! Fill me up!” Pyrrha collapsed against his chest as he continued cumming inside his girlfriend before they both fell backwards onto the bed. Sweating and exhausted, Pyrrha traced lovingly across his chest once she had regained some strength.

Not many words were spoken between them for the next few minutes, and Jaune’s mind - while very much in the moment - also wandered. His eyes ran to the window, behind the beautiful naked girl on his chest, and he saw it was dark outside.

Surely they hadn’t spent that long having sex, right?

“Pyrrha, I love you,” Jaune said, kissing the top of her head and pulling her closer. He was still inside of her and could have possibly gone more rounds, but perhaps it was best not to do so until she regained some more complex motor function.

“Jaune, I love you too,” Pyrrha replied, curling up to his chest. Looking behind them, she gently moved her chin in the direction of the head of the bed. “Want to get oriented correctly? Kinda weird laying here sideways like this.”

The two of them went about moving so that they were lying there normally on the bed instead of sideways, and his head found a pillow. He was a little tired, but who knows what they could have done together?

Arm around her, the two of them remained there naked for a little while, just enjoying one another’s company. Soon, they were making some small-talk again, and then Jaune was considering using the bathroom before Pyrrha shook her head.

“Unfortunately if you want to get cleaned up you’ll have to do it at home. I think mom’s back, and she’d know if you took a shower here…” Pyrrha said, watching him get dressed even as she sat in her bed, his spunk still oozing out of her. “Sorry.”

“Hey, no worries. I’ll take a bit of funk for what just happened, trust me.” Jaune said, tossing her a smile. Today had gone better than he could’ve imagined. “We’re still on for meeting tomorrow, yeah?” 

“Mhmm!” Pyrrha hummed happily, before swinging her legs and walking up to the now clothed Jaune. She was fortunately naked and he admired her as she came back over again. Kissing him, she patted his chest. “And Jaune? Don’t kiss and tell, okay?”

“Well Pyrrha, if there’s any _one_ thing I know about women, it’s that _they_ talk about this far more than guys do.” Jaune said. He had seven sisters, he knew that they gossiped about sex and just talked more in general - though mainly about their friends’ experiences. “If I were to mention this to Ren he’d nod at me and say ‘Nice’.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow Jaune…” Giving a small giggle at that one, she turned around about to leave before she whirled back again. “Wait! Maybe you should climb out of the window, so she doesn’t know you were here.”

“If that would make you more comfortable, I guess that’s fine.” Looking back at his girlfriend he raised an eyebrow before sighing and walking over to her window. “But if the roof buckles under my weight and I fall and die it’s on your conscience.”

Opening it, he put one leg out onto the roof overhanging their porch. “Love you.”

“Love you too!~” Happy, Pyrrha blew him a kiss as he rolled out and eventually hopped off the roof into the grass. Walking away, he crossed their lawn quickly before rounding the corner near a hedge and taking in a deep breath of the night air.

 _“That was_ **_hot_ ** _."_

“You know, I was wondering when I’d hear from you again,” Jaune said, thinking about the alien in his mind again as she floated into existence next to him. She just moved through the air, free and unrestrained by gravity.

_“Rudeness is not something I’m overly fond of, and it most certainly would’ve been rude to intrude on such intimacy… Good gods though, that was a lot of spunk. If she wasn’t on birth control there’s no way you didn’t just impregnate her.”_

“Something about _that_ is hot to me now too. It wasn’t a kink I had before.” Jaune said, thinking about it. He couldn’t remember having an impregnation fetish, but the more he was thinking about it the better and better it became in his mind. The idea of knocking her up nearly gave him a boner in his pants just walking there.

_“Jaune, things change. You know that much…”_

Both of them continued along, neither noticing a flicker of light behind them before a streetlamp went dark. Bent in half, it was crooked as though struck by a massive being while making no noise as it shifted so.

Moments later Salem decided to break the silence again. 

_“I have quite a few kinks, you know.”_

* * *

**~oOo~ The Power of Love! ~oOo~**

* * *

**Note:** It’s hard to do long sex scenes, you know? Because you then have to deal with unrealistic stamina, etc. Not to mention, it’s kinda difficult to shift from position to position while keeping things fresh, and it almost feels like there’s only so many ways of describing things.

So, if anyone has advice or ideas on writing better longer more complex lovemaking scenes, let me know. Also, if anyone wants to be a friend and do some beta-reading for all my stories and help me get up to snuff, then let me know and we can work something out!

Stay safe my friends.

**-DragonManMax**


	4. Reunion

**‘I do not own RWBY. It was created by Monty Oum, and is owned by Roosterteeth.’**

**~The font ‘Cambria’ is recommended, for your viewing pleasure.~**

**Note:** Here's chapter four! Writing again, so expect for sure one more chapter this month, with one more after that definitely possible. Once more I would like to encourage everyone to comment / review whatever - I always like receiving feedback and on a story such as this it's especially valuable.

Anyways, into it we go!

* * *

**The Power of Love!**

**Chapter IV**

* * *

His keychain jingled as he opened the door to his house.

By the time he had gotten back home from Pyrrha’s place, it was truly dark outside, and the street ahead of him was illuminated by the occasional streetlamp and passing car. Whereas before he would’ve felt some apprehension at walking alone in the dark, knowing that he was the selected champion of an alien queen did quite a bit to boost his confidence that he’d be able to courageously fight off any attackers.

Stepping into the illuminated front hallway he heard some muffled speech from his left and Salem appeared in front of him, gesturing her head in the direction before once again phasing out of existence. While she must’ve _known_ he wouldn’t miss a detail with her gifts to his senses, clearly she took some sense of responsibility for reminding things that he may otherwise overlook.

Walking into the living room Jaune found there were no lights on save for what spilled in from the front hallway and what light came from the large television in front of the furniture set. Lounged upon said furniture, watching said TV, was his mother; such late-night activities as this were not unusual for the mother.

Juliette’s head rose up from where she’d been focussing before to lock eyes with him.

“Ah, you’re finally back.” She said, stretching a bit before returning to her comfortable half-laying down position on the couch. There was just enough room for one person to sit down if she decided to move her legs a tad. “Dinner’s in the fridge if you want to eat anything… Or I could cook if you’d like that.”

“I’m fine but thanks for the offer mum.” Despite his rather energy-depleting activities from earlier that night, he found he was tired, but not _drained_ or exhausted. “What’re you watching?” 

The very moment he said that the TV flickered with static before returning to the programming that was on there. He noticed a vibration in his pocket and figured it was his phone before deciding to ignore it for the time being - it was rather rare for him to get one-on-one time with his mother.

“Oh you know, one of those dumb engagement shows - it was a long day today, and I just need something mindless to listen to while I think. I’m sure you know how it is.” She said, grabbing the remote that had been resting next to her as she turned on the subtitles and turned down the sound. “Care to join me?”  
  
Barely a moment passed before Jaune was nodding along. “I’d like that quite a bit mom. It’s been a long day and we could use some one-on-one time… To be honest, after recent events I kind of feel like I’ve been taking you all for granted.”

Lifting her legs, Juliette left Jaune enough space to slip onto the couch before resting her feet in his lap. Smiling, she wiggled her toes at him for a moment. “After all I’ve done for you, you take me for granted? My my, someone has lost their appreciation of good parenting.”

“I’ve lost my appreciation of the _best_ parenting,” Jaune said, relaxing back into the couch. He meant it too - despite his dad’s death and the troubles that came along with raising a teenage girl multiplied by seven, she’d done an amazing job.

Really, it was some kind of small miracle none of her kids ended up messed up in the head.

“Well, how about this… We’ll start spending more time together and I’ll forgive you for taking me for granted if you massage my feet.” His mother asked playfully with a cheeky smile, and there was something about the bright happiness as she wiggled her manicured feet in his lap that made him so deeply pleased.

“Honestly, I think that’s _more_ than fair.” 

Grabbing her feet with his larger hands he caused her to give a small eep before she laid her head back on the arm-rest of the couch, letting him take care of her. Giving a sigh of contentedness, the older woman let his fingers dig into her soft skin, removing the tension that had built there over who knows how many weeks.

Salem appeared, kneeling before him on the floor between the coffee table and the couch wearing a strapless dress that did nothing to hide her incredibly bountiful cleavage. He found himself looking towards her even as his hands continued pleasing his mother’s feet, one at a time.

_‘Need something, Salem?’_

The Queen of the Grimm looked at him and raised an elegant, quizzical eyebrow. _“You’re an intelligent young man, Jaune. Surely you must be able to presume at least one of the things I am going to be telling you at this moment.”_

Jaune’s mind went through a few things absently as she patiently waited and he came to one of the conclusions rather quickly, though the other ones he had no idea. 

_‘You are here to talk about my mother.’_

_“Among other things, yes.”_

The Queen’s sultry voice filled his thoughts and caressed his mind, tingles rising in his spine as he felt a similar but not entirely the same stirring in his pants. He could understand why she would make it feel as though she was hotly whispering in his ear, but why stir his loins as his mother lounged her legs across his lap?

_“Just this morning you concluded that you loved your sisters - not in the way a brother loves his family but in the way man loves woman... You_ **_know_ ** _this extends to your mother as well: you want them to feel and know love, to be fulfilled and happy, content to the point they would accept death because they were so satisfied with life.”_

_“You questioned if the reward outweighed the risks of unhappiness, the boundaries, and the risk of hurt, and decided that yes, the reward outweighed it. You decided that anyone who needed love could find love in you provided they were_ **_capable_ ** _of being loved.”_

He felt his temperature rise and blushed just slightly enough for it to go unnoticeable in the dark should his mother open her eyes from her contented mewlings. _‘Point being, Salem?’_

_“Point being, I think you should bring your mother happiness… Not simply because I am asking you to, but because I have a feeling that, were my presence not even a factor, you both would succumb to your innermost carnal desires of love eventually anyways.”_

_‘I-I can’t say what would have happened, Salem… Honestly, I’m not certain you could either. Regardless, you said you had other things to tell me as well?’_

Queen of the Grimm swayed, then stood up and was back on her feet in a moment, looking at the relaxing Jaune. _“Tomorrow after you meet your friends, we shall escape and begin testing your body and deal with some other issues that need to be taken care of in relatively quick succession. Sleep well.”_

With that Jaune watched her disappear into one of her many transitions before returning to the place in the background of his mind in which she always resided. Her words stuck with him a bit, and not for simply the fact that she was saying them, but because he had noted that the stirring in his loins was not a cause of Salem but a cause of his mother’s long legs.

“Mmmm, you’re very good at this, honey.” 

Bringing him back to the moment, Juliette’s words caused her son to look up at her as he continued massaging her feet. This was hardly the first time he had done so, but the most recent time previously was years ago, and in the time since he’d improved his massaging technique quite a bit.

“I try to please, mother.” Moving his hands to her ankles, he rubbed those and got a small moan of appreciation before moving his hands up to one of her beautiful, smooth and soft calves. Massaging up her leg, he felt more tension than he was expecting and looked at her.

Continuing his work, he felt her skin beneath his fingers. It was warmer than he was expecting - even now with a girlfriend, Jaune still found himself wondering at how interesting physical closeness was. While he was luckier than most in terms of receiving affection from a very tight-knit group of friends and family, he still found it difficult to recreate the memory of _true intimacy_.

That wasn’t to say that Jaune couldn’t remember every detail of his beautiful night with Pyrrha, or the time they spent together. On the contrary, he was fairly sure he would remember tonight until the day he died. No, what he couldn’t recreate was the feelings recreated within; Jaune could recreate the feeling of his father’s hug, the smell of his room at summer camp, but he couldn’t create the feeling in his heart when he became close to other people.

Because it was something indescribable, and unique.

“Hhhhah.” Stretching once more, his mother gave a pleased breath as she repositioned even as he kept his gentle, yet firm and powerful grip on her calf. For a brief moment, he turned over his hand and ran his rough knuckles against her skin, the sensation not meant to be used as a massaging gesture but a simple feeling to create pleasantness - like a loving caress or a caring touch.

Jaune’s eyes ran up her smooth leg, his thoughts previously being so preoccupied in his post-coital elation that he didn’t even register what she was wearing. Legs obviously left uncovered, his mother lounged in a black silk women’s kimono that contrasted with her glowing, beautiful skin, and a tank-top beneath with a pair of sleeping shorts.

Despite being dressed what was ultimately not in a way meant to titillate, he found that his arousal was rising. A part of him hated himself, thought it wrong to be thinking such things about his own mother, but even now she did not reject him as he massaged her calves and gently moved up to the knee.

Remembering their hug earlier, her soft G-cup breasts against his chest, two barriers of cloth being the only thing separating him from one of his mother’s deeply intimate places, Jaune felt his loins stir once more until he twitched against her foot. 

“A-Ah.” Juliette coughed moments afterwards, head moving up from its relaxed state against the arm-rest before she laid back, shuddering as she did so. He noted her reaction - was it possible she felt him stir? 

Surely had she felt something and suspected that he was growing aroused by her, she would be repulsed… Wouldn’t she? Salem had said they would have resorted to their baser more carnal desires even without Salem’s presence, but was it because Jaune had been attracted to and loved them all this time?

Or was it the other way around? Salem had told him his sisters wanted to be the ones in his arms - the ones receiving his affections even though they knew it was taboo, their sinful but loving desires. Could that have applied to his mother as well?

After all, with so many years with only one real man in her life, who else was she to fall in love with?

Feeling his fingers trace up her leg from the tip of her well-manicured toes to her knee, Jaune felt his mother shudder beneath his touch, ever so slightly, and yet even then she did not pull away or react in any negative way. 

So he did it again, and again, moving from a single finger to a hand, and soon he was massaging up and down her legs.  
  
“J-Jaune, I haven’t experienced a massage this nice in ages - really, I think you are most certainly forgiven for not appreciating me enough.” His mother said breathily, and despite their angles, he could see the smile on her face even as she allowed her eyes to remain closed. She trusted him enough to touch her legs up and down, but what would happen if he reached further.

“You know me, mum, always looking to help.” 

Gasping briefly as his hands found their way to one of her thighs, he massaged it tender and slowly, noticing her movements. He imagined her without the kimono, naked and sweaty beneath his touch, her massive heaving breasts and hips on full display - he imagined her sacred cunt, now just a matter of inches away from his hands, and he wondered just how far he could venture.

His fingers sunk into her flesh but met toned muscle beneath the smooth unblemished surface of his mother’s legs. He was admittedly very impressed - despite the children, the work, the everything, she’d found time to take care of herself and age incredibly well - well to the point he thought her more beautiful than a considerable number of women his age, to the point he’d rather look at her than any pornstar or model.

“I’m not sure we should be-O-oh!” Came the whimper from his mother as his hands slid further, just two inches from her nether regions, massaging her truly well now through the cloth but he felt closer than ever to his mother.

“Mom, I love you.” He said, swapping legs even as she moaned, this time without restraint and letting him know just how much she appreciated him. “And this is the least I can do for you.”

Until he had confirmation of her feelings, he would stick to teasing.

And so, after getting her noticeably hot, and caressing around her nether regions but never them himself. By groping her legs and stroking them, from the tip to where they joined her hips, he just continued seeing his mother not only as the woman who birthed him but as the gorgeous woman that he would like nothing more than to love and hold in his arms as he whispered sweet nothings.

Shuddering and mewling, bit by bit Jaune watched her face contort time and time again pleasurably, and could’ve sworn he saw a slight rise in the fabric of her kimono where her breasts strove to break free. 

Now noticeably erect in his trousers, Jaune thought to go further, damn the consequences, and finger her there on the living room couch where anyone could walk in on them, but still, something felt wrong. He wasn’t sure he could go that far without feeling weird that night, even as he felt her skin beneath his palms and considered it so _so_ right.

Underneath him, he felt her move, until suddenly her legs were swinging off of his lap and his mother was seated normally. 

“Well, my show is done so I’m off to bed, Jaune.” She said, seemingly relaxed from the whole experience. At the very least, she seemed to be as normal as she’d ever been, well-composed as he could always remember her being. “Thank you very much for the foot massage.”

Had he imagined it all? Surely he had managed to do more than that! She had been basically melting beneath his touch - surely she couldn’t be composed after all that. It couldn’t have been his imagination, he could recreate everything, the feel, the sound of skin on skin as he traced her legs, the glow of her skin under the light of the TV.

It had happened... Hadn’t it?

“Goodnight Jaune, I love you.” His mother said, before turning to head upstairs.

“Love you too, mom.”

* * *

**~oOo~ The Power of Love! ~oOo~**

* * *

All the energy she could spare went into stopping herself from hurrying away and rushing up the stairs to her bedroom. She had to appear natural, to give him no impression that he had been doing anything to her, but it was near impossible. She’d let herself slip - she’d moaned slightly and squirmed.

What was worse was that Juliette was fairly sure she’d left a wet spot on the couch where she’d become aroused to the point of soaking through her panties and shorts. She would need to clean it up early the next morning before it was found - what would be more complicated is if any residue had dripped from her even now, sliding down her thigh to the floor.

But leaving him there on the couch before things went any further was a good idea… Because surely she was imagining things wasn’t she? She’d invited her son to sit with her, and he’d massaged her feet - that was what happened, yes, she distinctly remembered Jaune massaging her feet and doing it rather well.

Only to move up her leg… And massage. And then further, and further, until he was inches away from her burning, moist loins. Until he was rubbing her thighs intimately, in a way no son would be touching his mother - until he was rubbing her up and down, a hardness in his pants, the same way a man would rub a woman as they prepared to become intimate.

He told her he loved her too.

Surely, that meant just familial love from a child to a parent, and had nothing to do with what just happened… If anything had happened at all and she hadn’t imagined anything, of course. Even now halfway down the hallway to her room, Juliette felt her face flush and her chest grow hot as she imagined him. 

Again the woman shuddered, knees briefly shaking as she made her way into her room and immediately into the ensuite bathroom. She stripped, silk caressing her skin as it fell to the floor, followed by some stained panties, shorts and later a tank-top.

Juliette skipped the usual mirror shtick and immediately got into the shower, standing beneath the flowing water. She’d already bathed for the night, but felt a second shower was worth it - despite that, however, she couldn’t bring herself to take a hellish, cold shower. No, it was hot as she felt at that moment, and flowed down her.

Water droplets ran onto her head, her hair, face, chest, back, ass, and down to her feet. 

_‘Fuck, I’m still wet… God, t-that couldn’t have happened, could it? Shit, I haven’t felt wound-up like this in years - what did he do to me? It’s not going away - I keep thinking about him... Jaune’s your son! Get a hold of yourself!’_

Despite that, she couldn’t get her son out of her mind.

His touch, his words, his heart. She loved him as a son, well and truly. She found him to be kindhearted, good, and someone compassionate enough to understand… But it was so much more than that at a certain point.

_‘Who are you kidding Juliette? You’ve had those thoughts about him for well over a year now… This wouldn’t be the first time you’ve imagined something like it: why is it only wrong when suddenly_ **_he_ ** _seems to be approving of it? Was desiring your own son not naughty enough already?’_

In moments she wasn’t just standing there, but caressing her tone stomach that had taken years to regain after giving birth so many times. Her dieting, her working out, her good genetics, had ultimately manifested in what some would consider the perfect form of womanhood.

Was it any question that her son would become attracted to her?

Soon one hand had moved up to cup one of her large breasts. They’d been the cause of back issues, and pain, though recently for whatever reason that had lessened. She worried they would sag if not supported, but they had retained enough strength to avoid doing so for the moment.

A pair of her fingers found her nipple, catching it between the two as she felt herself quiver below and her other hand found its way to her perfect mound. Kept trim and clean, she’d always treated it with respect - was denying it pleasure a form of disrespect then?

Taking care, she first traced her lips, then inserted her fingers. Each touch sent fire across her skin, the same kind that Jaune had sent across her thighs as he moved up earlier that evening. She felt welling desire deep inside her, like an unscratchable itch.

Her eyes close and:

_‘...she saw him in front of her, caressing her shoulders, holding her hips oh so firmly. Suddenly he pushed her against the wall of the hallway, before thrusting his lips towards her and engaging in an uncaring liplock with his mother… They kissed for what felt like minutes on end, tongues entwined, breathing as one in pleasure as both moaned from the taboo sensualness of what they were engaging in-’_

Juliette felt herself probe further and felt her nipples harden on her large breasts. Water dripped down them onto the arm that was constantly preoccupied with playing with herself. Even as she touched herself a part of her considered it wrong to think this way, but the other part urged her on, to think, to let loose to the desire she’d had long before the events of the night.

_‘- she could feel his massive cock pressing against her stomach even as she craned her head to engage further in their passionate make-out. He was so much bigger than his father ever was, more passionate and thoughtful, more devoted and loving. She felt him detach from her mouth, and go downwards, groping her breasts with his hands as he sucked at her neck. Soon she was moaning, quivering with pleasure at his ministrations -’_

Carrying through to real-life Julliette found herself moaning without care, dipping her fingers harder and faster into her cunt. Her juices flowed down her thighs, lost in the shower water as she felt her brain gradually become more and more lost in the haze of lust that was Juliette’s fantasies of making love to her son.

_‘-everything was to her benefit as he ate her out. Her hands rested on his head, fingers clutching his blond hair as if to say: Never stop! She moaned and her legs shook as she reached orgasm, gushing over his face as he lapped it up hungrily. He stood from his knees and pulled her from the wall before settling both hands onto her ass, firmly slapping one cheek to the response of a moan before lifting her. Just before insertion into her wet hot cunt, Jaune leaned forwards to his mother’s ear and his hot breath dripped with lust as he whispered: “_ **_I love you mother._ ** _”’_

Nearing orgasm she could feel it, she was so lost in her fantasies she desired it. Her nipples were harder than ever, she couldn’t stop touching herself, she couldn’t stop whimpering and moaning as she imagined her son-

_‘-’s thick meaty cock pounded inside of her recklessly. Her legs were wrapped around his waist as he carried her as though she weighed nothing. The two were unbelievably close and intimate, her breasts squished against his chest hard enough he could feel the location of each burning nipple. She could feel him reach her deepest parts, filling her up completely - she was sure if there was a photo taken you would be able to see the outline of his massive dick inside of her as he thrust, harder and faster… Until he was moaning, like an animal in heat and the moaning screaming mess she was, she screamed “_ **_I love you Jaune!_ ** _I love you so much! More than any mother loves her son! Fuck me hard! Fuck me fuck me fuck me!”’_

Regaining some sense of composure, she clapped a hand over her mouth and stumbled to the side of the shower as her other hand furiously dabbled into her pussy, slick and wet from the shower and herself as she felt her throat coated with more and more moans she did her best to restrain as her face twitched nearing orgasm every moment, her eyes shut closed wishing to go back to the place in which her -

_‘-son was nearing orgasm! She could feel him moan beneath her, his heaving breath as he fucked her harder and relentlessly through pleasure after mind-boggling pleasure, pulling them closer and closer together as she went mind-brokenly along for the ride, tongue drooling as he continued, never missing a beat or tiring so long as she made her enjoyment known. She felt his cock pulsate and hooked her legs even harder around his waist. “Cum inside me Jaune! Get me pregnant! Get your loving mother pregnant!” Grunting like the animal of taboo lust he was, he pumped into her, spraying her insides with cum, driving her to-’_

Experiencing her own orgasm at the same time, Juliette felt herself gush and spray with force and vigour she didn’t know she contained after so many years away from the touch of a man. She felt her fingers within her, being clenched upon by her nether muscles, begging and milking them as though they were a cock that could satisfy her.

“JAUNE!” Legs shaking as she continued to orgasm, with wave after wave of pleasure rocking through her body, she heaved as she slumped to the floor of the shower, a quivering exhausted mess of love for her own son, who she would soon make her own.

After all, what love was more beautiful than that of a mother and son?

* * *

**~oOo~ The Power of Love! ~oOo~**

* * *

“You’re alive!” Came the joyous, surprisingly surprised call from the third most petite member of their group of friends, her red and black form swaying slightly in the cool summer breeze as she enveloped her long-missing friend in a hug. 

“Honestly Ruby that shouldn’t be surprising, I’m the one suggested we all get together today.” Jaune said with a wide smile. There was something about the younger girl’s happiness over the small things in life that made him appreciate his own life more than he would without her.

“I-it’s different in real life! For all I knew it could’ve been a cruel trick from one of your sisters! Or a rampaging AI trying to ruin my evening!” She said, small arms holding him with the tight ferocity that his little sister Lacy used on his return from the hospital.

“Just because you recently got out of a coma doesn’t mean I won’t beat you for feeling her up.”

“Y-Yang it’s not what it looks like! _She_ hugged m-” He desperately tried to explain before Ruby’s buxom blonde protector sent him into a longer coma than the meteorite did. He was briefly faked out by her fist coming from the side before it stopped abruptly and she too joined into the hug.

“Good to see you, Jaune. We were all worried, really… So uhh, thanks for not being dead I guess - man, that sucked. You know I’m no good with the touchy heart to heart stuff Jaune, so you-”

“Being entirely honest, Yang, just the fact that you’re concerned enough about me thinking you went too far with your joke says more than your words could ever say.” He said, feeling her soft breasts pressing against his right arm even as Ruby continued the hug.

“Please don’t tell me we were meant to come up with one-liners to welcome you back with.”

Turning to the left as much as he could while the two girls hanging off him finally got the message and broke away, Jaune spied Blake standing to one side and was somewhat surprised to see a small upturn to her lips.

For even _her_ to be happy to see him up everyone must’ve been more worried than he’d originally thought. 

“Missed you too, Blake. Never change.”

“Count on it.”

“Arc! Do not assume that just because you have crippling medical debt from our health-care system due to a freak accident that was no way under your control that you no longer owe me the seventeen dollars and twenty-nine cents I loaned you for those slacks when you ripped yours!”

“Weiss, I would have paid you back by now had your compounding interest rate not been so high.”

Vale’s resident Schnee heiress took no offence at that and instead sighed. Dressed in a lovely white summer dress and sun-hat she seemed to have put at least a little bit of effort into dressing up for the occasion. While baring her heart even after all this time together could still get tricky, they (or he at the very least) had learned to notice her more subtle signs of affection.

“Perhaps… Perhaps my rates were a _tad_ too predatory. As a sign of goodwill, I, as your _friend_ , not the institution giving you the loan, I will pay off your debt…” The icy girl said, before adjusting her hat and crossing her arms, mumbling something.

“Sorry, what was that?”

“Nevermind!”

“Jauney!” Came a wild call from _somewhere_. Thankful to have the girls off him he swirled around and managed to catch Nora before she bowled him over. Gently putting her back onto the ground, he watched as the always energetic orange-ette put her hands on her hips and smiled up at him.

“Really sorry for not telling you what the gypsy woman said! To think, all of this could’ve been avoided if you’d just taken my advice and went to see her that one time!” Giggling to herself the girl soon had a firm hand land on her shoulder.

“My apologies Jaune. She slipped away from me when I wasn’t looking.” Said Ren, Jaune’s long-time and seemingly lone male friend. “I am glad to see you in good health - your medical charts were not looking very good.”

“You got to see my medical charts?”

“A ninja never tells.” Came the mysterious and intriguing reply from his stealthy friend.

“I stole them from your bed doctor when he wasn’t looking. Man, you have no idea how many charts I stole looking for yours! But it’s fine - I tossed 'em all out the window before I could be caught with the evidence. Quick thinking eh?”

“Huh, I’ll be sure to let you know if I ever need to rob the ill and misfortunate, Nora.”

“Aww! That’s one of the nicest things you’ve ever said to me!” Nora said, putting her head down for a moment. Officially, Nora was in fact the shortest member of the entire group. Patting her head, Jaune felt her laugh again before looking up.

“Good afternoon everyone!”

Cheerful and more friendly than she’d been in the last two months, Pyrrha joined them moments later. Everyone had turned in her direction, noting that finally, the entire ensemble of unlikely friends and companions had arrived and was now waiting on what was to come next.

“Well, I suppose I’ll say it since nobody else did - did anyone else feel Pyrrha’s entrance was kind of anticlimactic? Was expecting a big old rush, and a hug, and then a proclamation of lo- Ow!” Yang said, rubbing her arm where a rapid pinch had been placed courtesy of her raven-haired bow-wearing friend.

“O-oh.” Blushing as red as her hair, Pyrrha avoided eye contact for a moment even as Jaune edged towards her and took her hand. “Jaune and I kind of made things official a couple of months ago. Talk about bad timing, right? I mean, imagine telling the guy you’ve liked for the last, like, four years that you want to be with him and then he gets hit by a meteorite.”

Moments following this confession of their being a couple came a set of squeals and excited jumping, even from the usually unexcited Blake, with a smiling nod from Ren that basically equated to a: “I’m so happy right now I could weep.” 

“Someone had money on this! Someone! Who was it!?”

“Me! YES! YEEEEEEEEES! I won! And this being after I got to pick last! Woooo!” 

Kissing Pyrrha as the girls sorted out the betting pool, Jaune felt his girlfriend’s soft, kind lips against his for a few brief moments and broke away. It had felt as special as it had the first time and each after that.

He ran his thumb over her strong hand, caressing her smooth skin as he watched it unfold. 

Apparently feeling quite the catharsis at the reveal, Blake’s fists shook with rarely seen true excitement as clearly, she saw dollar signs in the sky for her. “I don’t know what I’m going to do with the pool but damn! I am going to go big or go home!” 

“I swear if you spend it all on books I will officially consider you lame.”

Pouting, Blake turned to Yang and the eye-rolling Weiss. “What can I say? With shipping, those things are expensive to get out here! I could get _six_ limited print extended editions plus bonus artwork with this money!”

“Jeez, just how much was in that betting pool?” Jaune asked, now intrigued. He had no idea what Blake’s books cost, but from the sound of it, the pool must have been larger than he had initially imagined.

Weiss rubbed the area between her eyebrows with a pair of fingers before taking out her phone and opening a note file. “Well Jaune, we’ve been running the pool since the sixth month of our schooling together - after determining the drawing order we all placed our first bet. Each month we’d reconvene and in the same order and guess when it would happen based on events from the time since we’d last convened.”

“But, we also grew the pool each month by thirty dollars, because everyone involved gave five each month. Now, keep in mind that the pool grows by $360 a year, and we’ve been doing this for three and a half years. Adding the initial contributions to the pot and the total for Blake, the winner, is $1380!”

Ruby’s jaw dropped. “I’m _so_ much more annoyed now! I didn’t know we’d gotten that high!”

“Fuck me, if I knew it was that much I would’ve tried getting in on it myself!” Jaune said with a laugh as Pyrrha squeezed his hand and rested her head on his shoulder, a playful smile on her lips.

“To be honest, I would have too. It _did_ seem to be an impossible occurrence at times. Besides, it sounds like good fun - even if the reason it started is that _clearly_ you all thought we were too dense to get together.” His red-headed girlfriend said patting his arm before breaking away from him.

“Gotta be honest, it was more because Mr ‘Weiss Schnee Will You Accompany Me~’ over here is dense. Of course, you kinda made it worse by not coming outright with it.” Ruby said, getting a bonk on the head from Yang for her troubles.

“Let’s go back a bit: Speaking of fucking, did you guys… You know?” Yang said, feeling the need to accentuate her comment with a set of rather lewd hand gestures that Jaune made sure to remember the next time he felt the need to mime just about any sexual-maneuver to someone from across a room.

“Y-Yang! You can’t ask something like that! It’s not _polite_!” Pyrrha said, attempting to give nothing away, but her firm denial as well as the brightening of her cheeks gave it away immediately.

“I’m not hearing a _noo~_!” The blonde said, her amazing mane of hair bouncing as she hopped over with a sadistic grin at finally having something to tease the normally perfect girl about.

“N-no! We haven’t yet!”

“We haven’t!? Shit! Whose house was _I_ in?!” Jaune said, sticking out his tongue at his girlfriend playfully. While they’d had the whole “don’t kiss and tell thing” going on, she’d already given the game away essentially.

“My sweet virgin ears!”

“Before marriage!? How could you?!” 

“Sex-schmex! Did you get really kinky and handhold!?”

“D-did he pin you down, and then rip your-”

“That’s more than enough out of _you_ , Blake!”

“Is Pyrrha pregnant now?”

Undergoing their onslaught of questions most of which were met with a series of non-particular answers or simply no comment save for whatever showed on their face at the moment, the friends found themselves sitting on a set of park benches. 

Ren arrived back at the still talking group holding several ice creams from the nearby cart, and soon they were all simply chatting under the summer sun getting Jaune caught up with everything he’d missed since he’d been away.

Really, not much had changed. Vale had remained virtually the same save for the loss of a couple of teachers due to a school sex-scandal and their presumed replacement. Jaune was surprised to learn that there was disturbingly less news coverage of his accident than he would’ve thought there to have been - surely something that particular would have _hoards_ of reporters trying to get to him at that point, especially once he was awake.

Other than that, there wasn’t much.

Vale’s municipal election had gone somewhat unexpectedly, as there was a previously unheard of upstart candidate that took the Mayoral seat but seemed to be delivering on their promises so far, though they were only one month into their term so far. 

Business news had remained unchanged, though a certain restaurant they appreciated had burned down, and there were talks of possible lay-offs coming with the recent economic uncertainty. Thankfully most members had a parent in the military and they were virtually free from doubt, but people like Pyrrha, Jaune, Ren and Nora faced some possible uncertainty.

Jaune’s thoughts drifted to his mother. He would need to ask her about it later.

Gradually they came to a pleasant lull in their conversation as the eight of them, finally whole once more, began contemplating vacation plans. Ruby suggested they go out of town for some sort of cosplay thing going on, but due to a lack of group interest that remained on the backburner for the time being.

“What about the beach?”

“The beach sounds nice! Though of course, sand is coarse, rough, and gets everywhe-Oi! That fits in the context. You have _no_ right!” Yang said, once more rubbing her arm where the phantom pinch from Blake had apparently landed. “Besides, I haven’t had basically _any_ time to flaunt what I _got_ recently amirite?”

Apparently, it was not a good idea to throw a high-five to Weiss immediately following a proclamation of her genetic gifts. 

Falling into agreement, the eight of them returned to a content silence once more. They’d talked and talked, but now was the time in which you knew you were friends - being able to just sit in the quiet together without saying a single word, accepting of the semi-awkwardness.

“I’ve missed this.”

* * *

**~oOo~ The Power of Love! ~oOo~**

* * *

Calling Salem’s form of training him “unique” was a bit of an understatement.

Pulling Jaune into the odd dream world was still too much effort on her part to be sustainable for any real period of time, so she had developed a hybrid. Jaune would bring the space in which they would work, and she would make an overlay through his senses of what he would see.

Ultimately, it seemed to be working well.

Dodging another flaming projectile launched from the left, he dove into the tall grass before bouncing back to his feet and rushing it. He was quicker, stronger, had greater stamina - his cognitive functions had been improved as well. His memory was better, his attention to detail sharper, his time to react decreased.

Whipping a rock he’d scooped out of his hand towards the assailant, he heard it connect with a sickening crunch before he leapt at them and drove his fist into their chest. He felt them crumple before grabbing them by the head and tossing them face-first into the dirt.

Surrounding him were multiples of these fake assailants run by Salem. He’d managed to take them down like some kind of robot - his movements almost felt as though they weren’t his own. They felt like the movements of someone prepared and good at doing things - while he was still clumsy when exerting himself fully, it wasn’t the same kind of clumsiness that he would’ve been expecting at the beginning.

_“You’ve done well.”_

Huffing, Jaune found that even his heavily increased stamina had a limit, and working from the late afternoon into the later evening had seemingly brought him to said limit. Under the stars, he considered collapsing before reconsidering - there was no point to be dramatic.

_‘What can I say, Salem... I have a good teacher. I’ve managed to dodge the balls, hit the targets, evade the hounds, break the walls… What is your next challenge? I think I’ve still got some fuel in me!’_

Appearing in front of him, the woman sat in the grass and urged him to do the same. Sitting down next to her, he lifted his knees to use as arm-rests while waiting for her to speak. Admiring her form, he noted a sheen across her skin - sweat? 

_“While you may be able to continue, I believe I have been taxed to the full extent of what I can do for now.”_

Feeling something coming across from the link between the two of them, Jaune tried to centre in on what the feeling was. Disappointment? Annoyance? Here he had thought that he had been performing so well, and yet his Queen wasn’t satisfied.

_“You are incorrect in assuming that those feelings are meant for you.”_

_‘I must admit I wouldn’t have been expecting for them to be directed at yourself.’_

Scratching the back of one hand, Salem put her arms behind her before leaning back. Her larger cleavage was presented, and he once more took in her seemingly unblemished, perfect form and skin. Yet even then, that was hardly what he cared about at the moment.

_‘Care to let me in on what’s troubling you, Salem?’_ Jaune wondered. _‘The two of us are meant to be working together, and while I’m your champion, I hope that we can see each other as friends too - early as it may be.’_

Nothing came from her end for some time as she seemingly just stared up at the dark skies.

_“Jaune, at one point I was a being of immense power. The world could shake below me if I so much as willed it - seas would split at the whim of my thoughts… Now here I am, millions upon millions of miles away from what used to be my home, and I am exhausted at simulating images for you to fight… The disappointment is for me - for allowing myself to fall this far.”_

He had to admit - there was little that he could say to reassure her. But perhaps he could try.

_‘Salem, the fact that you’ve fallen so far just shows how far your potential could take you. People rise and they fall - angels fall too. While before you had a quaking world at your feet, were you content? Now you are here with me, hunted, powerless, and yet you will get to feel the satisfaction of rising from the ashes again to overcome any obstacle, to defeat any opponent.’_

The Queen of the Grimm smirked. It was odd, seeing such a smile on her pale face, but only because it was so rare - seeing her so near to a smile seemed almost natural. Her features were bright, and there seemed to be something new in her eyes.

_“Well, you’re right about that I suppose… Thank you, Jaune. I must admit: when I originally inhabited you I was not expecting you to act as my motivational speaker.”_

Laughing at that Jaune patted her shoulder. She was just a projection from him, yet he could feel her warm shoulder beneath his touch as though she were there for real. _‘What are symbiotes for, eh?’_

Grass crinkled and Jaune’s ear twitched - he’d seemingly zoned out for a moment, and now found the Queen inhabiting him sitting directly next to him, her legs folded beneath her as she leaned onto his chest.

_“Moving on to other news, I believe I have pieced together how you obtain your new powers.”_

Raising an eyebrow, he was surprised. So quickly? They had been doing this for such a short time, and she had previously been giving him the impression it would take significantly longer to discern… Just what had changed in the last day?

_“Ah, and here I thought I would have been the only one to figure it out. Shall I tell you? Interestingly, you are nearly there on your own - you just need to go a bit further.”_

_‘Honestly, I don’t care enough about the mystery, so you can just tell me.’_

Snaking one hand down his chest, she reached into his pocket. 

_‘I have no problems with this, but I can’t say I was expecting for you to be this forwar-’_

… And fished out his keys.

_“Jaune, I would like for you to focus on your keys. Think about what they are made of - the metal, the engravings on them… Think about how they’re connected, their shape, their form. Have you done this?”_

Even in the dark Jaune could picture his keys perfectly. Every scratch and notch on them from where they’d gotten stuck opening packages or kicked around in a parking lot. He had them in his pocket nearly every day for the last few years - there were few items that remained as constant a presence in his life as those.

_‘Yes. I can see them exactly. Brass one for the house, and a spare steel key for the family car in the event of emergencies… As well as a key to Ruby’s home to feed Zwei when they go on vacation - that one’s steel and has a deep scratch at the top.’_

Dangling them in front of him from one of her slender fingers, she jingled them slightly. They made the same noise they did the night before when he was opening the door to his home after returning from Pyrrha’s place. 

_‘Pyrrha’s place… What does that have to do with anything?’_

_“Open your eyes.”_

Following her command, he opened his eyes to the sound of Salem’s voice only to find her hand out of sight, but the keys still in his. They hovered in the air around three feet in front of him, gently spinning as though dangling on an invisible, coiled string.

_“Do you remember when you returned home? The TV flickered once you turned your attention to it. You felt your phone vibrate in your pocket, but it wasn’t vibrating because you had a message, it was vibrating because you were thinking about it in the back of your mind. Jaune, you’ve obtained the power of magnetism, control over metals, or possibly polarity, and Pyrrha is why.”_

No longer did he need it explained - everything fell into place immediately.

_‘The Grimm System has decided that I should get my powers from having sex with women?’_

Salem once more rested her head on his shoulder. He could smell her hair from here. A breeze picked up and swept across the countryside, making the grass sway and dance for a moment as he considered the possibility.

_“It is possible that it was predetermined, or random… However, what I think I have come to realize is that the system bases these things on who the person affected by the system_ **_is_ ** _as a being. Personally, I think it has less to do with the sexual aspect, and more with the love aspect of it.”_

Moving that concept around in his mind, Jaune found it easier to believe.

Over the recent days he’d come to the conclusion he would love whoever needed or wanted love provided they were capable of being loved - thus, he would gain power from loving and being loved. Being a big-hearted person towards those in his life would grant him rewards

However, even that had issues with it.

_‘If that’s the case, then why don’t I have a repertoire of powers by this point? I would imagine that my family loves me very much, or at least I certainly love them… Does this mean I’m un-loved? Because if that’s the case then I may just not go home tonight.’_

Laughing followed in bountiful peals. 

Within him, he felt the reverberations of humour as though she was trying to show him just how ridiculous that thought was with the same amusement she found at the thought. After a certain point, he was laughing too - it _was_ ridiculous.

They wouldn’t have wept in that hospital room as much as they had without loving him.

_“Jaune, both of us know that they love you. Hell, we both know that they love you probably an inappropriate amount considering they are your family - but that is exactly the thing. While love is good and well, there’s a fiery passion that comes with romantic love that is separate, that is unique, that is different from the kind of familial love you feel for a cousin or fun uncle. Romantic love is your way to power - what romantic love is defined as within the system may be simplified, but it is love all the same.”_

Once more the Queen within was talking sense. 

_‘Seemingly then, Salem, the system has decided that romantic love is exemplified with the consummation of that love through sex. Honestly, I’m not sure I’m as pleased at that as I should be - who wants to hear that all of a sudden sex is a game - a way to power up and nothing more?’_

Patting his chest, she stood, then offered him a hand up which he took. Hoisting him from the grass she watched him dust himself off before she simply shimmered and any residue of the ground dropped from her being.

Grabbing his keys from the air, Jaune awaited her comment.

_“But that’s exactly the thing - it must be real love that compels you to those actions or the system will understand that you are trying to game it. It will not be as simple as hiring some whores to do your bidding - you will need to gain the acceptance and love in some form or level from all those you encounter in such a way.”_

He sighed at the thought. Not in disappointment, or exasperation, but a simple sigh for the sake of it.

_‘Well Salem, it seems as though I’ve plenty of love to be making - I suppose I’ll start laying ground-work at the beach tomorrow, then perhaps start at home? What’s the easiest way to a girl’s heart, I wonder? After all, it took four years for me to get one, and I don’t know the exact time-frame.’_

Salem appeared back in front of him, then placed her hands on her hips as they began making their way back to his home. 

_“Jaune, I can think of some ways to start loving - let us get you home, my sweet champion.”_

* * *

**~oOo~ The Power of Love! ~oOo~**

* * *

**Note:** Chapter done! Now here of course we got to see the cast reunite following the coma, Jaune spending some *ahem* time with his mother, and a possible explanation behind the Grimm system. The second and third item there are especially important that I obtain feed-back on.

In particular, just how much build-up should I be doing before devolving into sexy-times between the characters? It seems as though I have an issue where despite my intentions, I always turn more to the story / coherence and logical side of writing something like this as opposed to just set-up for smut like Azuregigacyber (whose stories of which I sometimes have open as I write these).

I gave his mother some logical framework for a later chapter, but doing this for every sister and girl within the story would add to the length considerably, so I'm admittedly not entirely sure how much time I should spend making it logical before getting to the good bits.

Anyways, just let me know what you think.

**-DragonManMax**


	5. Beach Trip!

**‘I do not own RWBY. It was created by Monty Oum, and is owned by Roosterteeth.’**

**~The font ‘Cambria’ is recommended, for your viewing pleasure.~**

**Note:** Back again! Busy week ahead for me, so not much writing will be getting done, but I'll see if I can keep it up. Seems as though the general consensus was that build-up is good, so that's what I'll be doing. Though, I will be trying to base it off of the character themself and whether they'll need it, as well as what powers may come in to affect that later in the story.

* * *

**The Power of Love!**

**Chapter V**

* * *

_“Let’s go surfin now, everybody’s learnin’ how, come on and safari with me!~”_

Appropriately, the Beach Boys blasted over the radio as they continued the beautiful drive down the seaside roads to the beach. Blue ocean stretched as far into the horizon as anyone in the car could see, crashing in massive white plumes of water where the tide collided with the side of the continent.

Kicking her feet up onto the dashboard in the way women often did for reasons that never made sense to any driver anywhere, Pyrrha fiddled with the air-con before leaning her head back onto the head-rest and gazing through the window, just taking it all in.

“Left! Right! Left again! Bulbasaur!” 

Playing Pokemon were Nora and Ren because what better thing was there to do on a long car-ride than play on your DS? Ruby watched from the set of seats behind them, watching with curiosity but too socially awkward to mention anything to them (like how badly she wished to be involved in the process). 

Weiss beside her had taken to napping some time ago and was currently resting on her shoulder, though should she be asked about it later she would deny the said events ever happening. Unfortunately, there would be no video evidence, so they would need to let it slide despite three eye-witness testimonies.

Behind the wheel sat our hero, a somewhat tired but ultimately relaxed Jaune Arc.

Making good time, they would make it to the sea-side hotel with time left to spare and hit the beach. The little known slice of paradise they were travelling to was (secretly) known for its beautiful beaches and sightseeing tours of the coast, and it had taken a not-insignificant portion of their savings for this once a summer blowout trip for the gang.

Really, they only knew about it thanks to Yang - without her, they would’ve been heading to what would’ve been a significantly more crowded, dirty place with little room to truly get that relaxation in that they all so needed before their final year together. They knew that her mother had mentioned the place before, but not under what context.

Said girl was of course ahead of the rest of the crew on her bike, likely sweltering beneath her riding outfit - and Blake holding on tight enough to give her the Heimlich definitely wasn’t helping. The raven-haired girl was regretting every choice she’s ever made, and it seemed fair to say she wouldn’t be on the back of that hog again in some time.

_“We didn’t have places like this where I come from!”_

Humming in understanding, Jaune’s eyes traced up the Grimm Queen’s body. Standing on the hood in her ethereal form, there was no chance of her falling over as she was just projecting herself, unbeknownst to the rest of the occupants of the vehicle… Yet, despite the fact that she couldn’t fall, Jaune felt some anxiety at her standing there.

That said, part of that anxiety was killed by the outfit she was wearing.

Deciding that “dress for the beach” applied to her as well she underwent the effortless process of changing from her usual regal dress instead into a dark red bikini that made for an odd contrast against her still pale skin.

Yet, that didn’t mean she didn’t look good - her form was, as usual, was flawless.

_‘If there’s any upside to be said about the trip already, it’s that we’ve gotten much faster at communicating over thought.’_ Jaune mused, thinking about the idle chatting they’ve done. While the rest of the group had for the most part exhausted any conversation a few hours in, Salem seemingly had no lack of enthusiasm in learning more about him and the area around Vale.

Odd, for a being that had _literally_ seen every single memory of his, but it was nonetheless nice of her. It both kept him from drifting off as they got later into the afternoon, and kept him pleased as he recalled good memories from his childhood.

_“Agreed. It has become like second nature, has it not? So too have I mastered the ability to appear before you, so while some kinks in the system remain, I believe I should be able to at any time provided the surrounding environment has enough space.”_

Good news as far as he was concerned - there was something significantly more personal about speaking to _something_ , even if it was through thought, instead of just beaming his thoughts somewhere and seeing if she was picking up.

Her presence at the very least ensured that he was being listened to.

Yawning next to him, Pyrrha stretched then took her feet off the dashboard. “Excited Jaune? It feels like we haven’t had a vacation in _forever_! At the very least, definitely not together! Last year I was on vacation with my mother, and for the most part, everyone else vacationed with their own families - the last vacation we’ve all had as a group was like three years ago!”

“‘Course I’m excited! Two months in a coma, upcoming school, the stress of dealing with my new girlfriend all the time -” _That_ comment earned him a punch to the arm. “- some family issues I think, not to mention the gas-leak… It feels like I _need_ a vacation!”

“We don’t talk about the gas-leak,” Pyrrha said before stroking his arm. She checked the rest of the car and, apparently satisfied, continued. “Besides, I’m sure nobody would be opposed to it if we were in the same room this year - no chaperones either.”

Laughing, Jaune watched Pyrrha’s heart fall at his reaction.

“Nobody told you? We only got two rooms, so it’s four to a room. So while sure, I’m sure we could share, unfortunately, I doubt anything fun will happen.” He said, patting her hand while keeping one on the wheel. 

Pyrrha pouted at that.

The coastline melted from cliff-side driving to in-land for around thirty minutes before they curved back and were soon driving into town. Smaller shops and houses lined the clean streets as they navigated towards the hotel. Everyone they passed was most certainly dressed for summer, bikinis or trunks everywhere and on everybody. 

It was all he could do from looking at the fit women. Despite a pseudo-Goddess that could shape-shift into literally any form he desired should he just ask, and a girlfriend that was attractive as hell, there was just something about his wandering eye that couldn’t be stopped.

Sliding into a parking space next to Yang’s bike, he smiled at Nora’s excited exclamation that they were here as Weiss jolted awake. Piling out, they made their way to the lobby while Ren and Jaune circled to the back and started unloading everybody’s luggage.

A bag for Jaune, one for Ren, Nora and Ruby had two each, then there were Yang and Blake’s suitcases, along with Pyrrha’s…. Then there were about nine more bags and suitcases, and you could guess who those belonged to - their personal heiress, Weiss.

_“Meanwhile, I don’t have a single piece of luggage. You’re welcome.”_ Salem snarkily said from just behind him as he grunted. 

Even with his enhanced strength, he found certain suitcases of hers were heavy. What was she carrying around, rocks? Gold bricks? Coke? Buckles? Regardless, Weiss’ wardrobe and presumably other “necessary comforts” made the Tetris game of loading up the car far more interesting than it needed to be.

Carrying or rolling them all in at once like some lunatic, Jaune managed to precariously balance them all atop one another while Ren was loaded down with bags. Following his friend into the thankfully air-conditioned lobby, he looked around and spotted the girls standing near the elevators.

“Damn Jaune, we were expecting you to take two trips with that!” Yang said, punching him in the arm, making it quake in effort as he managed to keep things under control. “Mr. Strong-Man over here.”

“Room! What room are we!” Ruby said bouncing, before obtaining a keycard from Weiss. 

“We’re in 10 and 11, so we’re on the third floor. I tried to get us an upgrade, but it seems there’s no rooms left available.” Weiss said, before crossing her arms and shooting a killer glare at the man behind the front desk. “I _would_ speak to his manager, but I don’t want to be _that_ girl.”

“Karen is the term you’re looking for,” Blake said, before smacking the button to call the elevator. “And you would do best to avoid that title. It’s something that will haunt you the rest of your life once acquired.”

Standing there for a minute or two, it took some time to realize the elevators were out, and they would need to be taking the stairs. Sighing, Jaune moved the suitcases to the bottom of the fire-escape. Pyrrha put her hand on a suitcase, intending to take one before he stopped her.

“Don’t worry about it, I’ve got the luggage guys. You just figure out rooms and stuff. You can go too, Ren - I’ve got two months of laziness to work off.” Jaune said. His black-haired friend would have objected, but why argue when you know you can’t win? 

Looking at the pile ahead of him, Jaune gestured towards the man at the front desk. “Make sure nobody steals our stuff alright?”

Grabbing two suitcases he sprinted up the stairs, leaving them on the top-level before returning down, leaping down the flights. Soon he had two more and was hurtling up the stairs again, arms no longer strained now that he was taking the significantly smaller loads. Salem appeared in the middle, cheering him on a bit even as he continued taking the luggage up.

Finished a minute later, he stood at the top and noticed Blake was standing there, somewhat slack-jawed at his feat of incredible luggage moving. She pointed at him, then the luggage, with a raised eyebrow and seemingly was about to say something before reconsidering and disappearing into the room behind her.

Well, what was she going to say anyway? That he managed to take up the luggage too quickly without being out of breath in the slightest? Truly, not the worst reputation he could gain on this trip.

Navigating his way to room eleven, Jaune knocked on the door and it was opened by a rather excited Nora who then pulled him in. “Would you look at this! It’s awesome! There’s a TV, and a view, two beds, a shower and everything!” 

Spotting Pyrrha out on the balcony through the patio doors, he joined her and placed his hands on her hips while sliding into a hug-like thing from behind. “Gorgeous.”

“I know right? It’s always so different from the pictures.” Pyrrha said peering out on their sea view, the ocean stretching far beyond the beach just in front of the hotel. “Kind of romantic too… If you want to, you know, kiss me or anything-”

Kissing her, Jaune wasted no time and sought not to disobey her at all. As far as he was concerned, it was a pretty good idea. Pulling her closer, Jaune feeling her body beneath the flowery summer dress she’d chosen to wear that morning. 

Warm and soft but with an athletic toning, there was nothing like Pyrrha’s body around.

Pulling away, Jaune continued holding her as she put her head on his chest and continued peering to the ocean. “And when I said ‘gorgeous’, I was talking about you, not the view.”

“Haha.” Patting his chest, they stood there for a moment before hearing gagging from behind. Turning, the two found an eye-rolling group of friends. 

“Get a room you two,” Weiss said, before venturing into their room as if to compare it to her own. 

“Technically we did,” Jaune replied as Yang walked up to him with what seemed to be a smile on her face. 

“Better not be hearing that head-board against that wall, because we’re _right_ next to you…” She smiled and pat his shoulder, before clamping onto his shoulder with an iron grip. “Interrupt my sleep, and we will return home one person fewer.”

* * *

**~oOo~ The Power of Love! ~oOo~**

* * *

Feeling the warm sand beneath her toes, Blake shifted it around with her feet a bit before looking up from her novel. She was seated on a beach-towel wearing her bikini, as well as a sun-hat and a pair of sunglasses. Under their umbrella, she watched their stuff and enjoyed the time outdoors even if she wasn’t overly eager to develop a tan herself.

Looking to her left, she spied Yang, who’d fallen asleep in the sun. That was basically a sunburn waiting to happen, and a part of her thought about waking her… But how would she ever learn if there were no consequences for her actions?

_‘I’ll wake her up… In a few minutes.’_

Soon she felt her gaze wandering from her long-time friend back to her novel even as the wind sent a warm summer breeze over her that was infused with the smell of sea-water and something else she couldn’t quite place. Every word underwent her gaze, and yet it felt like she wasn’t absorbing any of it.

Not for the first time, she reread the page, before realizing none of it was sticking.

Once more peering upwards, she surveyed the beach from under the cover of her sunglasses. Despite all there was to look at, however, Blake constantly found her eyes shifting back over to the volleyball game being played in front of her - or more accurately, one player of the game.

Jaune.

Blake couldn’t have been the only person that had picked up on his small differences since before the accident. When they’d reconvened the day before she’d noticed, and she suspected the others had noticed as well, but aside from an ultimately questionable text from Yang she had no confirmation that anyone noticed that anything had changed.

Yet _she_ had.

Even now, she watched him play, different. It was like he had boundless energy, every time he fell down he was rolling back and bouncing up again in moments, sacrificing his body for the play even as Nora struggled to contribute anything to the team effort.

He was able to make it to any side of the court as needed, feet being stable and when they weren’t readjusting faster than she’d ever seen before. While it was possible he had suddenly decided to go try-hard on this game of friendly volley-ball, Blake figured it was unlikely he would put so much effort in.

Truly, even then that wouldn’t mean he would have limitless energy.

While everyone else was tired or beginning to sweat, he seemed as fresh as they’d been when they’d started - and was absolutely dominating Ren and Ruby because of it. That after such a long drive and moving that luggage and she would’ve expected him to be passed out in the hotel room, or at the very least napping like Yang was.

Moving her eyes up and down his shirtless form she liked what she saw. It was more than just his energy, but his _confidence_ that had increased following the incident as well. Before he would’ve been wearing a t-shirt or something, but now he was topless, happy, and looking good to the point she wondered why he would have confidence issues to begin with.

Jaune was damn _toned_ , muscular in seemingly all the right places. Not to mention his new confidence was attractive, and his energy drew people to him. There were just these small changes that had occurred that seemed to make him the best version of himself when he came out of the coma.

Pyrrha was sure to be a happy gal with someone like _that_.

Biting her lip, Blake grabbed her camera. Zooming in on him, she briefly considered how, were the genders reversed, this would be seen as something rather creepy before taking some pictures anyways. Was he her friend? Indeed, though they hardly ever spent one on one time together. But did him being her friend mean that she was to deny herself a good look at the handsome lad?

Crossing one of her legs over the other, she cursed to herself as he effortlessly lifted Ruby up and ran with her to the sea where he _threw_ her in. Splashing into the water, she surfaced moments later a sputtering, but adorably amused little mess.

_‘Damn it Pyrrha, you lucky gal.’_

Thoughts circling back to the blond’s girlfriend, she sighed before looking back down at her novel. Her (not so) secret shame of smut novels had always gotten her through the days, but she soon found herself imaging characters other than those within the novel enacting the scenes within - primarily herself with a recently changed man.

_‘Damn it, what I wouldn’t give for something like that.’_

* * *

**~oOo~ The Power of Love! ~oOo~**

* * *

Sopping wet from the mighty sea, Jaune emerged laughing even as Ruby jumped onto his back. Stumbling just a bit he grabbed onto her legs so that he was giving her a piggyback ride back to the court as she hooted.

“All you have to do is play by the rules, and I won’t throw you in again.”

“And as long as _you_ don’t throw me in again, I won’t have to drag you in moments later.”

Giggling as he shifted her weight and plopped her back onto the sand, Ruby rolled over and got back onto her feet as they returned to the game. Trying his best to avert his eyes from her petite yet undeniably pretty frame, Jaune instead looked upwards to where Nora and Ren were chatting through the net. 

Unfortunately, all that did was direct his gaze from Ruby looking incredibly fit in her bathing suit to the somehow even more attractive Nora. Whereas Ruby was short with small but fitting breasts (that she constantly assured everyone would grow), Nora was the shortest member of the group with disproportionately large tits for her frame, leading to her near busting out of her bikini top. 

Fortunately for him, she wore nothing outrageous, and in fact a turquoise suit that proved to be rather tasteful. However, there was something about the hiding of what laid beneath while showing enough skin to entice that almost always proved more erotic than nakedness itself.

_‘What would Pyrrha think if she knew I was looking at them this way? … Then again, would she think of anything of it at all? … Besides, really, should I ultimately care what Pyrrha things? My goal is to love, be loved and show love to everyone that can have it - that includes individuals who aren’t Pyrrha. Surely, were I to explain it, she would be okay with bringing not only her but her closest friends happiness as well, right?’_

In the back of his mind, Jaune could feel Salem thinking about that very thing so he wouldn’t have to. She was a wise woman, and he had come to trust her during their brief time together… At the very least, she didn’t seem to be lying to him. 

“Perhaps we should end our game here. Congratulations on your win, Jaune and Nora.” Ren said, looking down the beach where an overladen Pyrrha came with the group’s food while Weiss texted away, fingers constantly moving.

“Not a bad idea, Ren. You guys played well, perhaps team R&R should be a thing more often.” Jaune mentioned as they made their way over to the beach umbrella under which Blake and their things were gathered. 

“Rest and relaxation _should_ be a thing more often, I _completely_ agree,” Yang called from a distance, clearly only hearing a certain portion of the previous conversation. “This has been really nice, even though I’ve spent most of it napping.”

“There is nothing wrong with a good afternoon nap,” Blake said, reassuring the blonde that everyone there was on her side.

“Of course _Blake_ would say that,” Weiss remarked, tossing her phone onto the beach towel before sitting down and relaxing, her arms behind her to prop herself up. “You sleep so lightly it’s a wonder you’re not sleeping all the time to make up for it.”

Contemplating that, everyone just ate in some quiet as Pyrrha settled down beside Jaune.

He _definitely_ had to make sure his eyes didn’t wander, now. 

Munching through the rest of their late supper, Jaune turned to look out onto the ocean. The gently lapping waves against the shore, the sky beginning to darken in hues of orange and a subdued purple. He knew that as the sun went down the heat would leave too, this late in the year. 

“We should probably head back to the hotel sometime soon.” Yawning, Jaune looked at the other members of his group and watched Blake take off her sunglasses, revealing the usual curious amber eyes.

“I agree. We leave tomorrow evening, so if we want to get up early tomorrow and make the most of it we should go to bed early…” Pyrrha said, before thinking for a moment. “Though it’s _always_ more relaxing to sleep in when you’re in a hotel - we _could_ just be lazy and have a good time tomorrow instead of trying to force fun.”

“Pyrrha makes a fair point, but I’m fairly tired from the trip here, so I may just relax for the rest of the evening.” He said, getting up from their towel before dusting off his swim-trunks. “Feel free to stay out longer - I doubt I’ll be asleep when you return too, so don’t worry about waking me.”

“Shall I join you?” Pyrrha asked, though she of course didn’t need to. 

“Of course!” Reaching down he pulled up his girlfriend with little to no effort. 

“Maybe I will do the same and have one of those naps I mentioned,” Blake said and made to get up herself before Jaune stuck out his other hand. She seemingly considered it a moment before placing her soft slender hand into his and he pulled her up as well, doing his best to be gentle.

“Guess the rest of us will stay here, then,” Ruby said before launching into a conversation which quickly faded into the background as the three of them put distance between them and the beach. 

‘Twas a short walk back to the hotel that went without conversation save for some idle chatter regarding how Blake’s day was. There was little for them to really talk about - it was hardly as though they would get into anything deep or complex during the time, and thus that left meaningless conversation to be had.

Legs bounding the stairs two at a time, Jaune raced up to hold the door for the ladies and let them into the hallway, receiving some small thanks before they continued down the hall. Just as he was about to enter his room with Pyrrha, Blake tapped his shoulder.

“Actually, do you mind if I speak with you a moment, Jaune?” Blake said, before looking towards his girlfriend. “Sorry to drag him away from you like this, I know you two would much rather be relaxing, but I feel as though this is somewhat important.”

Looking towards Pyrrha, Jaune raised his eyebrow.

“Can I? She said it would just be a second.” 

One reassuring laugh later, Pyrrha was turning back towards their hotel room. “Be my guest, by all means. I am hardly so controlling or insane that I would have an issue with something like that… Of course, with the particular way I worded that one could assume I _am_ insane or controlling, and even _this_ does little to assuage thei-”

“Not to cut you short, but we definitely understand,” Jaune said before looking at the raven-haired girl. “Well, I can say _I_ know you’re not psycho, who knows what Blake is thinking to herself all the time.”

“Rude.”

Slightly chuckling Pyrrha closed the door and both hallway goers could hear her turn on the shower.

“Anyways, what was it you wan-” Jaune was shushed and Blake shook her head. 

“Would you like to come into our room? I just feel as though this is a conversation not had in the hallway.” She said, to which he shrugged even as his mental gears began turning. 

During an unexpected event like this, he had no idea where to even start thinking - there were too many possibilities for him to presume anything of what the girl would say. Salem agreed with him, and he could feel her pondering herself beyond the mental veil between them, and _she_ was someone who knew more than most about basically anything.

Following her in, Jaune did his best not to judge the girls, but the room was already a mess and they’d only been in there for thirty minutes before heading down to the beach. Clothes were strewn everywhere from presumably their change into bathing suits, suitcases were left askew in the walkways, and there was a single wrapper left on the room’s desk. 

However, the view outside their balcony doors made all of it worth it - the sunset that they’d missed on the beach was still going on from the new perspective, and a beautiful orange glow filled the room.

“Jaune, I want you to know that we’re here for you, and you’re a friend to all of us, okay?” Blake began, having taken a seat in the one desk chair available for use. 

Thinking that it would be awkward to sit on a bed, instead the still shirtless Jaune stood in front of her. He had flashbacks to times where, as a child, he would occasionally be reprimanded by a teacher in private - though a single long-forgotten memory of his father surfaced too, with him sitting in the chair similar to the way Blake sat now.

“O-Okay Blake. Not sure I like where this is going with that prefacing.”

Blake shook her head, before looking up at him. “Remember, we’re here to help you.”

“Remembered, acknowledged, hell, I’ll get it tattooed if you want once we get to the point,” Jaune said - it had been getting somewhat annoying for the woman to get her thoughts in order enough to continue speaking. While he could acknowledge some people needed that time, one does not pull another person aside with intentions of speaking to them without knowing what to say.

“Are you on anti-depressants?” She blurted. It was awkward, but straight to the point, and he could appreciate that. “Or coke? Or mushrooms? Or taking speed or meth or something but are somehow immune to the worst parts?”

“Woah, just where’s this coming from Blake?” Jaune asked. A fair question - he hadn’t seemed as though he was going on a drug-fueled bender while out with his friends, right? Surely she hadn’t thought that he was driving while under the influence!

“For the record, under no circumstances would I ingest those last ones, most _certainly_ not knowing I would be driving my friends along a windy coastal road - I’m dense not irresponsible.” Jaune pointed out as her cheeks darkened slightly before she continued.

“I-I just…” Once more Blake paused, this time avoiding eye contact before continuing again.

“Since this afternoon, with the suitcases, I’ve been observing you… Or I suppose since we all met up again yesterday.” Blake said, and Jaune began to get a glimpse of where this was going. “I-I know this is a personal thing, and it’s really not cool for me to ask you this, but I need to know.”

“You just seemed so different yesterday, but not even in a bad way…” Blake said, before looking him up and down again. A part of him felt a certain amount of pride at that - seemingly he was good enough to look at. 

“You’ve seemed happier, more confident… And I might just be imagining things, but it seems like you’ve gained more muscles recently, and you’ve just got all of this energy you didn’t seem to have about you before.” She continued, before giving Jaune a chance to respond.

_“The girl is bright - she’s noticed the changes since you’ve awoken… I’m not sure even your family has made those connections yet. Of course, you can’t quite tell her you’re my champion, and you can’t tell her any part of the truth… So I must leave the improvisation up to you.”_ Salem said herself, before retreating to her observing post within him.

Jaune’s mouth opened, then closed, then opened again.

He was about to take advantage of her past… And that made him feel like a piece of shit.

“Blake, I’m not sure if they’re quite comparable, but I think there are a couple of similarities between a moment in each of our lives, so I think I’m going to put this in a way you understand…” Jaune said, before looking down at his hands. 

While he was, in a sense, taking advantage of her past in order to get her to drop the line of questioning, what he was about to say wasn’t a lie, but was instead the truth… It _was_ the truth, but it was a truth unrelated to the changes for the most part - even if it _had_ had an impact on him and his life.

“During the two months I was under, time continued to pass on the outside, and I wasn’t one of those cases you read about where people remember everything they hear while they’re under… I don’t remember a single moment of any of it. Nobody read to me, or sang to me - it’s like I fell asleep and didn’t dream.”

“And, when I woke up, and got out of bed, and then got home with my family, I started thinking about things. While I shouldn’t have probably been up so fast and going through all of it without a therapist, I _was_ , and I was thinking about everything _hard_.”

“Ultimately, I came to a few conclusions… The most important of them being that I had wasted so much fucking time in my life not enjoying myself, not being happy because I was too worried about what tomorrow would bring… I would get caught in my anxieties and think about the way things _could be_ instead of thinking about the way things _were_ and how I could make the most of it.”

“Completely unknown to most people, too. Most people wouldn’t suspect that I quietly had issues with who I wanted to be, or whether I _deserved_ the good life, and to be confident or not. By all appearances I was functional, but the outwards appearance can be deceiving.”

Blake knew that to be true. She of all people knew how people could be deceived.

“Jaune Arc went into a coma two months ago, and came out Jaune Arc… But he came out a _different_ Jaune Arc. He came out a Jaune Arc that was tired of wasting time, of being secretly miserable, and being afraid to _feel_ and dream and hope while at the same time living entirely within the moment and the life he was living.”

Across from him, the girl was now paying apt attention. 

“I went a version of myself that, upon waking up, I realized I didn’t want to be. Now? I think I’m the best I’ve ever been - I am who I want to be, I’m living the life I want to live, and it’s like, for once I’m the real _genuine_ Jaune Arc… Like I’m someone who knows who they are.”

Monologuing for that time had built a small lump in his throat. Speaking it out loud had made it more concrete - while before he was trying to explain away his enhancements, it ended up with him coming to terms with the truth - the _real_ truth. It could turn out Salem was a lie and it was all a metaphor or illusion, and self-improvement came from within and was that to happen _this_ would be the defining moment of his life.

However, Salem was real, and it wasn’t a movie.

“When you were… When you were with Adam, he took advantage of you. I think that maybe even more than anyone else, _you_ , Blake, know what it’s like to wake up someone new one day.” Jaune said, looking down at her. While what he said was hardly beautiful, it was worth the thought, and it looked as though she was giving it the thought it deserved.

“Taurus was the reason you felt anxious, secretly miserable, and you had your friends there for you… But while you were with him, how long was it before you saw that _he_ was the cause for your issues? You saw that your miserable moments were stemming from him, so you got rid of him.”

“And I woke up like I was myself again… Like everything had gotten better, one day.” Blake said. To call what she was doing crying was hardly the truth. In reality, it was more like silent tears running down her cheeks as her vision went blurry.

“Naturally, it’s not quite that simple, and I think, no… I _know_ I’ve still got a lot of shit to work through, but I’m not on anti-depressants Blake because I’m not depressed. If anything, for one of the first times in my life I’m truly happy.” Jaune said, before walking up and crouching in front of her.

Gaze cast down, his amber-eyed friend peered at him once he was in her sightline. 

Before her eyes was a stupid, kind of charming, partially disarming smile that came from the heart.

So she laughed. It wasn’t boisterous, or crazy, but that laugh that one gives that they’re feeling down that puts that smile back on their face. Soon, there wasn’t just one, but two stupid smiles in the room, one belonging to a crouching blond, the other, to the seated woman.

“I’d like to apologize for treating you like this was an intervention.” She said, having taken a few deep breaths and calming down. Her face twitched a moment. “I-I’m sure you know that I had only the best intentions.”

Moving back, Jaune stood back to his full height, back cracking slightly.

“Of course, Blake. You’re my friend, like everyone else here, and I can presume _all_ of your intentions are good as far as we’re concerned. We’ve been through a lot, and I think I know you well enough to trust that you’re a good person - even if you have an unhealthy addiction to smut novels.”

Laughing finally, Blake smiled.

With the way she did so, Jaune a new question came to mind.

Just how was it that a woman who smiled so rarely could have such a beautiful smile? Truly, it lit her features in a way rarely seen on Blake - smiling even with her gorgeous amber eyes, it was as though she was an entirely different person when she was showing her emotions so plainly.

Actually, it would be a crime not to just call her gorgeous all around. While she’d been different when they’d first met, she’d matured into a good-natured, good-intentioned, intelligent and good-looking woman who was kind. (No matter how much she denied having a huge empathetic streak in herself.)

“Now come here.” Throwing open his arms, Jaune felt somewhat awkward doing so - this was something that once more brought memories of his father to the surface. He remembered how his sisters would hound him.

“Pardon?”

“The Canadians, they do this strange thing with their bodies, I think it’s called a ‘hug’?”

“But Pyrrha-”

“ _Pyrrha_ is across the hall, and she and I are in a healthy relationship of mutual trust. I think she will understand, and possibly even _encourage_ , me giving a hug of good-will to a dear friend of mine to symbolize the entire situation being behind us, forgotten and forgiven, Blake.” Jaune said, arms still open. “If you feel uncomfortable, just say so, trust me, I will take _no_ offence.”   
Her mouth opened for a moment, before closing again.

Moments later she was on her feet and had closed the difference between them. 

Closing his arms around his friend, Jaune held her. Her smaller frame beneath his, Jaune could feel her back against his arms and her chest against his. There was something nice about hugs that could be replicated by just about anyone, and Blake was no different - it didn’t have to turn sexual, or super intimate, but the pure and solid _niceness_ of a hug was not to be understated by anyone.

Exiting, Jaune held her at an arm’s length for a moment before turning his back to leave. As he was about to enter the hallway, Jaune turned for a moment, considering something.

“And, Blake? I know girls really hate it when guys say this, but you should smile more - you look beautiful when you do.”

Leaving, satisfied with the talk, he thought about it for a few moments. It was a talk that he’d been needing to have, whether with himself or with someone else since the moment he’d realized he was someone deeply different than he was a few months ago… And it was a talk he was deeply glad to have had, no matter the circumstances of it coming about.

Swiping his keycard over the door to his room he entered to find a freshly showered Pyrrha brushing her hair on what would end up being their shared bed during the trip. Nora would take the other bed, and Ren would be taking the couch. (Like a gentleman.)

“You good?” She asked, long red hair flowing down her shoulders in bright contrast against the stark white of her hotel robe. 

“Blake just wanted to ask me something, but it’s all sorted out.” Jaune said cheerily before looking in the bathroom. “I’ll shower, and then we can turn on the TV and just cuddle or something, yeah?” 

“That sounds _divine_ ,” Pyrrha said, turning on her (admittedly terrible) British aristocrat accent with the final word, before giving a beaming smile. Already, she had grabbed the remote and made her way to the top of the bed where she got cozy.

Minutes later Jaune was out of the shower and pulling on his pyjamas before slipping into bed next to her. Raising her head, Pyrrha had to wait just under two seconds for his arm to make its way beneath as they turned on a movie from the guide.

All it took was himself getting under the covers with his girlfriend, clean and warm and relaxed for him to find himself drifting off into sleep.

_‘Life is good.’_

Waking at some time in the late morning, Jaune peered around the early light of his hotel room in search of his other companions, but to no avail. Seeing naught but dishevelled sheets on Nora’s bed, and a folded blanket on the couch, he raised his eyebrow before figuring they had probably gone out for breakfast without him.

Rolling out of bed to his feet he strolled into the shower and bathed before moseying down to the dining room where he presumed he would find his friends having an ultimately lacklustre continental breakfast.

He was right on both counts.

Sliding into a chair near Ruby that was the only one available, he said nothing, letting them continue the conversation they were all having before he had arrived, even as he eyed the breakfast bar for some toast.

“ _I_ say we just relax the rest of the day - putting more time and effort into min-maxing the hell out of a vacation isn’t the way to go about it,” Yang said, shovelling scrambled eggs into her mouth. Swallowing, she continued. “But at the same time, by no means should we spend all our time in the hotel room.”

“Fair. But we need to fill our afternoon with something… I figure we go back to the rooms, get changed into beachwear, get packed, take some spare clothes to the beach…. And then we need something for that afternoon area - nothing complicated, but _something_.” Weiss said.

Eyeing her lone coffee, the heiress clearly hadn’t found the breakfast up to her standards.

“Usually I would suggest the mall, but how’s that any different from home?” Ruby said. 

Disappearing away for a moment, Jaune returned with a plateful of food and made eye contact with Pyrrha before smiling. Everyone had acknowledged his presence, and were fine with continuing their conversation around his arrival - and that was fine with him. Working simply to accommodate him as he arrived and had nothing to add would simply be awkward.

“According to the pamphlet, there is a pier that might be worth visiting,” Blake said, turning over said pamphlet in her hands. Managing to spy the photographs on the front, they reminded him of somewhere he couldn’t quite place.

“Looks like they’ve got places for souvenirs, sour-dough clam chowder - whatever that is, some sort of outdoor exercise thing on the nearby beach… There are some other things listed here, but I see no reason to go through the full list… Azure’s Pier”

“Might be alright! Anyone have objections?” There was no response - it wasn’t as though anyone had any better ideas, and who knows, they could have a good time where they weren’t expecting one. Why not?

“Pier 29 it is! But for now, we are going to build the most bitchingly-awesome sand-castle this side of the Milky Way!” Nora declared. “Now I know that’s a specific metric, and you may all be thinking, Nora, why _this_ side of the Milky Way, and not the _entire_ Milky Way? Unfortunately, I know of a bigger, greater castle.”

“But nonetheless! We shall triumph in our own way, today!” 

_“You should keep an eye on that one, Jaune… She knows more than she lets on.”_

_‘Honestly, I think that’s just Nora being Nora, but I’ll take your word for it Salem.’_

* * *

**~oOo~ The Power of Love! ~oOo~**

* * *

Leaving their portion of the beach a few hours later, the gang moseyed on down the seawall towards the distant pier. Left behind was a truly massive san0d-castle that had taken the completely dedicated group of eight _hours_ to create, and a moat that wouldn’t have ever been filled were it not for them building a canal to the sea.

One short, albeit windy, walk later they were there standing on what was clearly old but still sturdy wooden planks put together decades ago and aged by the sea, salt and wind. Looking around, Jaune ran one hand over his wallet. 

Should he get souvenirs, and waste that money? Or let the moment last in his head, not his palm?

Figuring maybe Pyrrha would want something, he wandered off as they split to look at items to buy and found himself torn between a pair of earrings and an overpriced hoodie before going for the hoodie and getting it in his size.

While new to relationships, Jaune knew the tales of the girlfriend stealing her boyfriend’s hoodie a few weeks or months in… By having a decoy hoodie, he could keep his real ones safe while at the same time seeming admirable for letting her take it without a fuss.

Big brain time.

Tucking it away into a bag, Jaune left the shop and entered into the large open-air courtyard-esque space between the two rows of stores that lined the pier. Noticing some stores, he spotted nothing of interest save for the “Harbor Barber”, inside of which stood a deeply smug-looking man… Though whether he was smug due to his feedback and the quality of his haircuts or because of the pun was unable to be discerned at that time.

Looking around for his friends he spotted Weiss & Blake to be the nearest and made his way over.

Apparently in the time since they’d split they’d run into some interesting gentlemen!

Just about the same height as himself, both of them were seemingly in good shape - at the very least the confident blond one was. His abs were clearly visible beyond the open shirt he wore as he leant against the wall in a “cool” way and chatted up Blake. 

Meanwhile had bright blue hair which was either a great statement or a tragic mistake for most, but he managed to make it work in a way that wasn’t quite either even as he nudged his friend attempting to get his wing-man to help him out with the ice-queen.

How amusing.

“Ladies, how’s it going?” Jaune said, slipping into the side of their little clump. Getting no response, he nodded downwards towards the two lads they were chatting with. “Jaune. Nice to meet you.”

“Sun aaaaaaand Neptune.” The blonde one said, giving a thumbs up. “You can tell us apart by our hair if you’re having trouble, or if you’d prefer... Something else?”

Gesturing to his admittedly nice chest, Sun winked at Blake. Surprisingly she blushed - Jaune wouldn’t have expected her to find such tactics charming but to each their own. Meanwhile, Weiss had become _somewhat_ interested in what the blue one had to offer, or at the very least found his advances flattering.

“Continuing from where I left off, my friend and I just completed the sand run in two minutes - _pretty_ impressive, if you ask me,” Sun said, before nodding a bit. “Usual times are around five, for context.”

Despite himself, Jaune laughed.

Now, to be perfectly clear, Jaune was by no means a man beloved by women everywhere, nor could he charm the panties off a girl by flexing his muscles or saying a few honeyed words... But jeez, in today’s climate, it was just lame to brag about your deeds in an attempt to pick up girls, and if it worked for something ultimately... As _lame_ as that, well, the girls’ standards would have to be low enough to jump over.

Of course, he had no idea the difficulty of this “sand run”, but there was no way it made them Ultimate Ninja Warriors.

“You laughing at us?” Neptune said, raising his eyebrows. “We trained for weeks before we got here to do that! And we _did_ do it - we beat basically every time on there except for some freak ‘Pamela’!”

Cringing, Sun wished desperately Neptune hadn’t mentioned Pamela.

Weiss crossed her arms. “I’m sure it’s indeed quite the feat, and my friend meant no offence by it... He’s just laughing... For some completely unrelated reason... Right Jaune?”

A single bony foot crushed into his, unbeknownst to the others standing there. Despite his enhanced strength, it seemed like he was deeply lucky she wasn’t wearing heels - even in her flip-flops, it was one of the worst pains he’d ever experienced.

“Indeed, Weiss. I’m laughing because that’s not how you pick up girls... Do you two have any substance to you, or are you just walking abs and brags?” He said, looking them up and down. “Blake and Weiss are strong, independent women, and that’s the best kind. Hell, trying to ‘pick them up’ was where you went wrong, to begin with.”

Sun actually seemed to understand and nodded.

“He’s got a good point, Neptune. They’re not objects, they’re people - we can’t pick them up, we talk to them like human beings... You know, I’ve actually been thinking about that for some time now.” Sun said, patting his blue-haired friend on the back.

“Uh-huh, and you never thought to mention this new theory to me?” Neptune said, looking somewhat betrayed by his longtime best friend. “I would’ve been more than happy to help test it out sometime.”

“Budding bromance, I see how it is,” Blake whispered beneath her breath before rolling her eyes - she was positive no one had heard it until Jaune snorted for a moment, before coughing and shaking his head. 

“Moving on, it’s good to see that you now are considering treating us like people instead of a test on how many lame pickup lines you can throw down,” Weiss said, shaking her head before smiling again, not just at the two lads but at Jaune as well. “One, in particular, stands out which should be retired, by the way.”

“Which one’s that?” Jaune asked, raising his eyebrow at Blake.

Neptune rushed to stop Blake but it was too late, she was already speaking.

“ _Damn_ girl! I’d suck your dad’s dick to get a taste of the recipe!” 

Around them was naught but silence. Not just within their little conversational bubble, no... But silence had enveloped the entire store, customers and staff alike wondering as to how anyone could have thought that would work. 

Of course, Blake’s entire face went a deep adorable red as she realized she’d embarrassed herself by saying it just a bit too loud, and soon she was hurrying off with a cackling Weiss. Neptune sighed, before fake crying for a moment and receive a few pats on the back from Sun.

“It’s alright, man... While I know we’re not going to be chatting up girls anymore, if they don’t appreciate that line they’re not for you.” Sun said, before looking up at Jaune. “How about you, what’d you think.”

Still chuckling, Jaune put his finger up for a moment as though he was about to answer before being hit by another wave of laughs at that line. Not just the fact that they’d said it to _Weiss_ of all people, but the fact that Blake had repeated it loud enough for the entire store to hear.

“Honestly, not sure it was _that_ funny, but that’s fine.” Straightening, Sun put out his fist. “You made a good point though, Jaune. While I doubt we’ll meet again, you’ve given us something to think about - after all, we gotta assume the genuine-human-being method worked for you, at least.”

“Wouldn’t recommend it if it didn’t,” Jaune said before giving the fist-bump in return. “Actually I’d kinda like to apologize, it wasn’t really my place to get in the middle of things like that... But you know how it is - we’ve been friends for like five years now, and I just want them to be happy.”

The dynamic duo waved it off without a second to think.

“Nah!~ It’s advice worth getting, and in hindsight, we’ve been wrong about it for a while. Consider this the kick in the ass we need to get into shape.” Neptune said, before gesturing to himself. “Err, you can’t tell, but I’m in good physical shape, so that was more of a metaphor?”

Laughing again, Jaune smiled at ‘em before looking over his shoulder. Spotting Pyrrha outside, he figured it was about time they go... He had a sand-run he’d like to try before they left, and who better to keep time than an track-lete, right?

“Anyways, I gotta get going,” Jaune mentioned, before nodding to the both of them. “If you’re ever in Vale be sure to hit me up, I’m sure I’m in the phone-book, and there’s only one Jaune Arc in there.”

“Yeah, have a good one man!” Sun said exuberantly.

“We’ll be sure to get together sometime!” Neptune responded much the same. 

Exiting, Jaune walked over to his girlfriend before wrapping his arm around her shoulders and pulling her in. Smiling wide and joyous, she hugged him from the side as they strolled down a side-street between stores. Stopping at the railing overlooking the ocean, Jaune moved his hand down from her shoulder to her hip, keeping her close as they enjoyed the moment together.

Red hair blew into his face from a gust of wind but he didn’t mind. He got to smell her shampoo - though it seemed as though she used the same pleasant free eucalyptus kind put out for the hotel’s residence.

“So what did you think of the trip?” Jaune asked.

He could feel the warmth of Pyrrha beneath his hands, but through the shirt as well. He was shirtless while she was wearing a top covering her bikini, and he could feel her curves and softness - her shapely breasts against the side of his chest.

Patting her hand against his chest the girl smiled.

“Coming here was a good idea.” She said, before once more resting her head on his shoulder. “Though admittedly, I was hoping to have some alone time with just us two... For... You know?” 

Despite her red cheeks, the girl was clearly quite serious about wanting to spend some intimate time together during the trip. He had to agree - while he was enjoying their first days together as much as anyone, they’d leapt to sex quickly and he had to admit... They were damn good at it - he enjoyed having sex with her and he had little doubt that she had an issue with their love-making either except for the frequency or lack thereof. 

“Mhmm... We still have a few minutes before we need to meet up with everybody.” Jaune said, pulling her waist closer to him. Thinking about it for a second. “I mean, not to be too suggestive, but I _did_ see a handicapped bathroom a few stores down.” 

Giggling at the suggestion Pyrrha’s smile somehow grew even further until it stretched from ear to ear. Then, she realized he was being serious, and that turned less from a smile and into a kiss as she leant forwards and kissed him, caressing his face.

“That’s so bad! What if they need it!” Pyrrha asked.

“Well, what’re the odds, right?” He replied.

“Honestly I can’t do that with a good conscience.” She said once more before taking his hand in her own and pulling him down the pier-side in the direction he’d indicated earlier.

“If you can’t do it with a good conscience then where are you dragging me?”

“I never said it being wrong would stop me!” She said with a cheeky grin before just squeezing his hand again. “It’s been like three days, and honestly, I can’t say I haven’t wanted this.”

“Dirty girl - what ever happened for you to end up like this?” Jaune said, rolling his eyes. “The Pyrrha I knew would’ve never dragged her boyfriend to have kinky handicapped bathroom sex!”

“ _You_ happened, Jaune! _You_ happened!”

* * *

****~oOo~ The Power of Love! ~oOo~** **

* * *

**Note:** So here we had some Blake progress, which is good, though this chapter also laid the groundwork for other chapters. Typically I'm figuring that's how things will be: groundwork, buildup, sex? Something like that wouldn't be unexpectable. As usual, please let me know what you think! Feedback is always appreciated quite a bit! 

**-DragonManMax**


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